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MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


$ 


MEXICO 

THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 

BEING  CHIEFLY  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  WHAT 
PRODUCED  THE  OUTBREAK  IN  1910, 
TOGETHER  WITH  THE  STORY  OF  THE 
REVOLUTIONS  DOWN  TO  THIS  DAY 

::  BY  HENRY  BAERLEIN  :: 

Lately  Special  Correspondent  of  '  The  Times '  in  Mexico 
Author  of  '  On  the  Forgotten  Road/  'The  Diwan  of  Abu'l  Ala,'  etc. 


PHILADELPHIA 

B.  LIPPINGOTT  COMPANY 

LONDON:  HERBERT  &  DANIEL 


THE  LIBRARY 
THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA 
AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


I  have  to  thank  the  Editors  of  the  '  Revue  de 
Paris/  the  '  Revue  Bleue/  the  f  Fortnightlv  Re- 
view/ the  'Contemporary  Review/  the  fEng- 
glish  Review/  the  '  Nation/  the  '  Manchester 
Guardian/  the  '  Outlook/  the  f  Morning  Post/ 
and  the  '  Westminster  Gazette '  for  allowing 
me  to  print  certain  sections  of  this  book. 


DEDICATION 

To  L.  Cranmer-Byng 

It  pleases  you  to  say  that  I  compose  my  books  in 
order  that  I  may  sit  down  to  write  a  dedication.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  one  does  enjoy  oneself  to  see  the 
words  come  dancing  from  their  inkpot,  whence  at 
other  times  they  have  to  walk  so  slowly  and,  before 
they  reach  the  paper,  be  subjected  to  a  search  so 
troublesome — to  put  it  mildly.  There  is  no  great 
difference  between  their  treatment  and  the  practice 
usually  followed  with  the  workers  of  a  precious  mine 
who,  coming  out  into  the  sunlight,  are  not  only 
stripped,  but  fingered  in  their  nostrils,  hair  and 
hollow  teeth,  so  that  they  shall  not  take  a  lawless 
jewel.  I  am  much  afraid  that  we,  who  institute  so 
rigorous  a  watch  upon  the  words,  will  end  by  fleecing 
them  of  any  jewel,  any  radiance,  any  trifling  beauty 
which  they  somehow  have  acquired.  Few  are  the 
inkpots  that  resemble  precious  mines.  But  those 
among  us  who  are  most  mistakenly  severe  will  feel 
that  in  the  dedication  it  is  possible  to  stand  aside 
and  let  the  words  run  as  their  nature  urges  them. 

Our  home — it  has  been  said  that  only  in  the  English 
language  is  there  such  a  word,  and  yet  I  know  not  if 
the  diffidence  of  other  languages  is  less  to  be  admired. 
It  may  not  be  so  simple  an  idea,  for  I  believe  that 
we  possess  a  home  wherever  in  our  thoughts  we  love 
to  walk  again.    And  on  that  island  in  the  Baltic, 

vii 


viii 


DEDICATION 


where  the  cherry-dealers  look  like  pirates,  where  the 
cows  are  not  supposed  to  give  their  milk  till  6  p.m., 
where  surely  at  his  water-mill  the  bibulous  ex-traveller 
continues  to  philosophise,  where  the  lady  of  a  wayside 
inn  besought  us  to  abide  with  her  because  she  never 
had  had  English  clients  and  it  would  be  so  delightful 
to  assuage  us  every  day  with  beefsteaks,  where  the 
fisher-maidens  merely  shake  their  heads  if  they  do  not 
desire  to  dance,  where  you  can  hardly  find  a  cave  or 
precipice  without  its  legend,  where  the  woods  give 
beauty  even  to  the  sea — there,  on  that  island,  you 
and  I  have  got  a  home. 

Perhaps  the  moments  of  our  friendship  that  I 
cherish  most  are  those,  and  they  are  numerous,  when 
we  have  been  at  Folly  Mill  among  your  growing  trees 
in  Essex.  A  tenderness  invades  your  face,  a  sort  of 
gloating  is  upon  your  eye  which  has  at  other  times  a 
pensiveness  or  else  a  sudden,  choking  merriment — 
I  say  you  gloat  as  you  bend  down  to  touch  the  little 
trees.  This  poplar  has  increased,  you  say,  beyond 
all  recognition,  and  that  graceful  ash  exhibits  five 
more  leaves  at  least.  And  you  are  happy,  if  the 
rabbit  and  the  frost  have  done  no  damage.  If  they 
have  you  call  down  curses  on  the  venerable  head  of 
Lakin,  your  eccentric  gamekeeper. 

It  was  otherwise  as  we  were  trudging  down  the 
long,  grey  road  when  night  had  fallen  on  our  Scandi- 
navian island.  You  did  not  upbraid  me,  you  did  not 
protest,  but  now  and  then  you  groaned,  for  we  had 
made  a  detour  of  some  miles  to  see  a  whitewashed 
church  that  was  not  even  romanesque.  We  came 
by  woods  of  silver  birch  and  lovely  mountain  ash  and 
fir,  but  you  declined  to  look  at  them.  Your  equanimity 
was  not  restored  until,  at  our  hotel,  we  came  into 
the  presence  of  Miss  Grete  and  her  grizzled  father, 


DEDICATION 


ix 


who  was  out  of  Potsdam  and  combined  the  functions 
of  a  colliery  director — I  am  quoting  from  his  card — 
with  those  of  a  lieutenant  of  militia  in  reserve. 
Apparently  he  was  unable,  whether  in  the  one 
capacity  or  in  the  other,  to  appreciate  the  works  of 
Heine,  and  we  had  to  be  extremely  strenuous  before 
his  pretty  daughter  wavered  from  the  faith  of  Pots- 
dam.  4  People  who  go  out  into  another  land  to  write, 

they  are — they  '   cried  the  parent.     He  was 

flushed  with  indignation. 

4  Do  you  think,'  asked  Grete  very  nicely,  4  that 
you  will  be  coming  back  through  Potsdam  ?  ' 

We  declared  that  nothing  could  prevent  us. 

4  Glad  to  see  you  !  '  roared  the  Prussian.  4  As  for 
Heine  ' 

4  Dear  papa  ! '  She  put  a  Bismarck-herring  on 
his  plate. 

4  And  if,'  I  ventured,  4  if  I  write  a  book  about  this 
island  ?  ' 

He  did  not  reply. 

The  book  is  still  unwritten,  and  for  fear  that  it 
will  never  be  produced  I  give  you  this  one  of  a 
distant  country.  There  the  trees  are  more  gigantic 
than  upon  the  Danish  island.  Everything  (save  man) 
is  more  magnificent,  and  in  these  pages  it  has  been 
deplorably  reduced.  Go  through  them  as  you  go 
through  your  plantations. 

H.  B. 


PREFACE 

Mexico  may  have  been  thought  a  blessed  country  in 
that  during  the  administration  of  Porfirio  Diaz  she 
appeared  to  have  no  history — commercial  progress 
and  the  arts  of  peace  not  being  usually  thought 
historical.  One  heard  of  Mexico  as  of  a  land  where 
all  was  tranquil,  and  where  the  regenerate  inhabitants 
had  been  persuaded  by  the  greatest  of  the  Mexicans 
to  keep  the  law,  his  law.  A  few  who  studied  Mexico 
more  closely  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Presi- 
dent was  mortal,  and  that  after  his  decease  some 
things  would  happen.  But  they  were  rebuked  for 
being  pessimistic  and  ungenerous  and  blind.  The 
smouldering  discontent  lay  not  five  fathoms  out  of 
sight.  ...  As  long  as  possible  the  partisans  of  Don 
Porfirio,  the  native  and  the  foreign  ones,  endeavoured 
to  waylay  the  truth  (Chapter  I),  even  as  the  President 
had  in  the  old  days  (Chapter  II),  and  in  our  own  time 
(Chapter  III)  suppressed  the  men  who  really  knew 
him.  The  abuses  of  the  legal  system  were  so  flagrant 
(Chapter  IV),  the  semi-independence  of  the  States 
was  so  ignored  (Chapter  V)  by  Don  Porfirio,  whereas 
the  men  he  sent  into  the  States  were  in  their  turn  such 
despots  (Chapter  VI),  and  the  economical  conditions  of 
the  whole  Republic  so  unsatisfactory  (Chapter  VII), 
that  the  discontent  was  gathering  everywhere,  and  as  an 
instance  we  may  lock  (Chapter  VIII)  on  Yucatan.  If 
Mexicans  had  not  been  so  long-suffering,  so  contradic- 
tory (Chapter  IX),  the  Revolution  would  have  come 

xi 


xii 


PREFACE 


far  sooner.   When  it  finally  burst  out  (CHAPTER  X) 

it  devastated  the  Republic,  and  although  the  Presi- 
dent resisted  to  the  last,  he  and  his  party  had  to 
go.  The  conquerors  did  not  alone  bring  certain 
progress  with  them,  but  the  promise  of  a  progress  more 
pronounced.  The  partisans  of  Don  Porfirio  resisted 
while  they  could,  in  every  way,  those  who  were 
fighting  for  the  Constitution  and  those  others  who 
were  trying  to  record  events,  and  though  one  is  dis- 
posed to  think  about  one's  private  ant-hill  as  a  range 
of  craggy  mountains,  I  will  quote  the  words  of  a  New 
York  review  1  : — 

4  Few  persons  understand,'  it  said,  4  how  rigorous  is 
the  censorship  in  Mexico  and  how  ample  are  the 
official  facilities  for  suppressing  such  news  dispatches 
as  happen  to  displease  the  authorities.  Modern  Mexico 
is  known  to  the  outside  world  mainly  through  volumes 
officially  inspired.  .  .  .  Even  so  well-equipped  and  so 
competent  a  journalist  as  the  correspondent  of  the 
London  'Times'*  has  complained  of  the  difficulty  of 
transmitting  news  from  Mexico  after  it  has  been 
laboriously  gathered.' 

Diaz  having  fallen,  you  may  urge  that  it  becomes  un- 
necessary to  describe  the  Mexico  of  Diaz.  Why  stir 
up  the  muddy  water  ?  Yet  it  does  not  seem  excessive 
to  devote  nine  chapters  to  some  phases  of  a  state  of 
things  which  lasted  many  years.  .  .  .  Chapter  XII  is 
devoted  to  the  tragedy  which  culminated  in  Madero's 
death  and  to  a  brief  consideration  of  what  is  to 
come. 

And  the  Mexicans  ?  I  have  been  asked  a  thousand 
times.  Well,  they  are  childish.  One  could  very 
properly  explain  that  with  a  population  so  much 
mixed — pure  Spanish,  Spanish-Indian  and  a  score 

1  '  Current  Literature,'  April,  1911. 


PREFACE 


xiii 


of  different  Indian  races — it  is  hardly  possible  to 
generalise,  but  if  you  want  a  comprehensive  picture 
I  should  say  that  they  are  childish.  Have  you  ever 
seen  a  boy  tear  up  a  living  beetle  and  a  moment  later 
say  that  yonder  ripples  of  the  olive  tree  are  like  his 
mother's  hand  when  he  is  lying  in  his  bed  ?  So  are 
the  Mexicans.  I  fancy  that  a  number  of  the  mis- 
creants who,  owing  to  a  mere  misunderstanding, 
massacred  three  hundred  Chinamen  in  Torreon  not 
long  since — some  were  cut  into  small  pieces,  some 
beheaded,  some  were  tied  to  horses  by  their  queues 
and  dragged  along  the  streets,  while  others  had  their 
arms  or  legs  attached  to  different  horses  and  were 
torn  asunder,  some  were  stood  up  naked  in  the  market 
gardens  of  the  neighbourhood  and  given  over  as  so 
many  targets  to  the  drunken  marksmen,  thirteen 
Chinese  employes  of  Yee  Hop's  General  Store  were 
haled  into  the  street  and  killed  with  knives,  two  hun- 
dred Chinamen  were  sheltered  in  the  city  gaol,  but  all 
their  money  was  appropriated  and  such  articles  of 
clothing  as  the  warders  fancied  ;  one  brave  girl  had 
nine  of  them  concealed,  and  calmly  she  denied  their 
presence  even  when  her  father  had  gone  out  to  argue 
with  the  mob  and  had  been  shot  for  being  on  the 
Chinese  side — a  number  of  these  miscreants,  I  fancy, 
are  on  other  days  delightful  citizens.1  And  when 
they  wish  to  do  a  brutal  deed  they  often  go  about  it 
in  a  way  that  we  should  smile  at.  Irabien,  a  friend 
of  mine  in  Yucatan,  had  as  a  nursemaid  a  good 
Indian  who  was  nearly  used  to  being  flogged  and 
otherwise  maltreated  and  was  finally  abandoned  by 

1  '  The  Mexicans  are  descended  on  the  one  side,'  says  Mr.  Cunning- 
hame  Graham,  '  from  the  most  bloodthirsty  race  of  Indians  that  the 
Spanish  conquerors  came  across,  and  on  the  other  side  from  the  very 
fiercest  elements  of  the  Spanish  race  itself— elements  which  had  just 
emerged  from  eight  hundred  years  of  warfare  with  the  Moors.' 


xiv 


PREFACE 


her  husband  ;  he  made  off  into  the  country  of  the 
hostile  Indians  of  Quintana  Roo ;  but  one  day, 
being  captured,  he  was  carried  back  into  his  former 
master's  hacienda,  and  this  master,  wishing  at  all 
hazards  to  increase  the  population  of  the  farm, 
commanded  that  the  wife  should  come  back  instantly. 
She  would  not  go.  The  master  had  sufficient  in- 
fluence, and  six-and-twenty  soldiers  came  to  fetch 
her.  Irabien  put  up  a  barricade,  the  soldiers  looked 
at  it  and  marched  away,  and  nothing  more  was  done. 
.  .  .  The  chapters  in  the  second  portion  of  this  book 
are  sketches  of  the  Mexican  from  several  points  of 
view.  They  are  intended  to  assist  a  trifle  towards 
an  understanding  of  this  people.  Only  Chapter  XVII 
is  concerned  with  General  Diaz,  and  although  it  is, 
so  far  as  I  know,  accurate  in  every  fact,  it  has  not 
been  included  in  the  first  part  as  the  form  of  it  is 
fanciful.  The  other  chapters  are  mere  disconnected 
fragments. 

All  men  are  liars,  and  it  easily  may  be  that  portions 
of  this  book  will  not  be  credited.  I  make,  however, 
no  claim  to  be  free  from  insularity,  because  in  writing 
of  conditions  in  the  Mexican  Republic  I  have  some- 
times held  them  up  against  our  own,  and  not  so  much 
because  these  are  perfection  as  that  everything  is 
relative,  and  we  compare  with  what  is  most  familiar. 
At  the  same  time  it  has  been  impossible  to  be  as  wholly 
insular  as  certain  critics  have  demanded  on  the  part 
of  other  writers.  I  do  not  at  every  mention  of  a 
deed  or  of  a  thought  in  Mexico  request  the  reader  to 
remember  that  we  are  considering  not  England,  but 
another  country.  Thus,  in  reference  to  General 
Diaz,  it  appears  to  be  superfluous  for  me  to  say  con- 
tinually that  his  methods  at  the  start  were  justified  ; 
the  country  was  in  chaos  and  the  treasury  was  bare, 


PREFACE 


xv 


the  Constitution  could  not  be  regarded,  and  in  fact 
one  does  not  censure  him,  one  praises  him,  for  his  un- 
English  statesmanship.  And  when  we  blame  it  is  not 
owing  to  the  lapse  from  our  ideal,  but  from  what 
should  have  been  his.  A  system  tantamount  to 
martial  law  was  still  applied  to  the  community  which 
had  progressed,  and  in  the  last  ten  or  a  dozen  years 
the  autocrat  was  in  the  centre  of  a  most  corrupt  and 
most  oppressive  oligarchy. 

Before  this  book  was  published  it  was  necessary  for 
me  to  obtain  an  explanation  of  the  conduct  of  6  The 
Times  '  towards  me  while  I  was  in  Yucatan.  This 
explanation,  which  came  out  in  the  proceedings 
before  Mr.  Justice  Darling,  will  be  found  on  page  41. 
I  am  very  sorry  that  in  my  account  of  Mexico's 
grievances  I  have  been  compelled,  in  one  chapter,  to 
refer  to  some  of  my  own. 

With  regard  to  the  above  proceedings,  it  may 
be  thought,  since  6  The  Times,'  in  spite  of  their 
admissions,  were  not  found  guilty  of  libel,  that  I 
would  do  well,  if  I  am  dissatisfied,  either  to  bear  it  in 
silence  or  go  to  the  Court  of  Appeal,  which  certainly 
is  a  most  protracted  and  may  be  a  most  costly  affair. 
It  may  be  thought  that  in  a  book  which  deals  with 
Mexico  and  incidentally  with  the  laughable  and 
horrible  judicial  methods  of  Porfirio  Diaz,  now  in 
exile,  one  should  make  no  reference  to  the  majesty  of 
British  law.  There  are  certain  countries — Macedonia, 
Mexico,  Finland,  and  Armenia — where  the  inhabitant 
is  treated  in  a  way  that  rouses  the  exasperation  of 
the  British  public.  Sometimes  they  have  even  called 
upon  their  Government  to  intervene. 


CONTENTS 


Dedication 
Preface 


PART  I :  Mexico  in  Revolution 

CHAPTER  I 
Como  Tapaboca  ........ 

Imperfect  knowledge  as  to  Mexico,  in  Middle  Ages  and 
now— Some  reasons  for  this — Some  books  on  the  country 
— The  gathering  of  information  in  Yucatan  —  Muiioz 
Aristegui  and  Ricardo  Molina — The  prison— 'The  Times  ' 
— Mr.  Justice  Darling — The  secret  police — Yucatecan 
priests — Bursting  of  the  storm— Flight  to  Mexico. 

CHAPTER  II 

What  Lerdo  de  Tejada  thought  of  Diaz 

A  rare,  old  book  of  doubtful  authorship— The  weeping 
of  Diaz — Benito  Juarez— The  natives  of  Oaxaca — Baranda 
and  Chavero — Princess  Salm-Salm — Porfirio's  battles — 
Lozada,  the  brigand. 

CHAPTER  III 
When  Don  Porfirio  was  Candid       .       .       .  . 

The  Church  in  Mexico — The  Constitution — The  famous 
Creelman  interview — Democracy  in  Mexico— Porfirio's 
intentions— Classes  of  Mexicans— As  to  re-election  and 
liberty. 

CHAPTER  IV 
Porfirian  Justice  

Pancha  Robles,  the  slave-dealer — The  senile  Minister  of 
Justice — The  jefes— The  strange  police— The  President's 
relatives. 


xvii 


xviii 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  V  page 
The  Sovereign  States       .       .       .       .       .  .103 

Analogy  of  Leopoldo  Batres — Abuses  with  regard  to  the 
antiquities — The  lurid  politics  of  Yucatan.  / 

CHAPTER  VI 
Porfirian  Governors  .115 

The  little  kings — The  deputies — The  Constitution — The 
dead  deputy — The  Indians'  flight— Old  times. 

CHAPTER  VII 

A  Song  of  Nightingales    .       .       .       .       .  .127 

Rich  and  poor  in  Mexico — Aztec  nobles — Taming  of  the 
Indians — The  greatest  landowner  on  earth — Limantour 
and  Corral — The  Yaquis — Mexican  women  and  children. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Slaves  of  Yucatan  143  ^ 

1.  Don  Ignacio's  letter :  Conditions  in  Campeche,  etc. — 
How  men  are  bought  and  sold  in  Yucatan — The  hunters — 
The  slaves  of  Yaxche.  2.  Don  Ignacio's  letter  {continued)  : 
Perils  of  education — Mendicuti,  the  leper — The  ancient 
servitude — The  native  of  British  dominion.  3.  Don 
Olegario,  etc. :  The  suggested  statue  —  The  Molinas : 
Audomaro,  Luis,  Augusto,  Trinidad,  Ignacio  and  others — 
Perez  Ponce.  4.  Some  Documents:  Flogging — Death  of 
the  Indians— More  flogging.  5.  The  Human  Heart :  Peon 
and  Matilde  Poot — Manuel  Rios  and  the  newspaper — A 
sad  return  for  hospitality — Drastic  treatment  of  Indians. 

CHAPTER  IX 

An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Mexican  History  199 

What  sort  of  man  is  the  Mexican? — Contradictions  of 
Mexico— Heaven  and  Hell— The  torturers,  peasants  and 
police — Villa vicencio  and  Cabrera — The  lieutenant — The 
reticence  of  Mexican  historians — The  little  girls  of 
Zacatecas. 

CHAPTER  X 

Dawn  After  Diaz     .......  213 

The  celebrations  of  September,  1910 — Madero — Aquiles 
Cerdan— The  growing  revolution — Limantour  and  Orozco 
— Chihuahua — Mucio  Martinez  — The  American  shadow  — 


CONTENTS 


xix 


PAGE 

The  Mexican  deputies — The  country  in  arms — Glory  of 
the  '  Daily  Mail ' — Ciudad  Juarez— Villa,  the  bandit — 
Mexico's  Joan  of  Arc — '  The  Friends  of  General  Diaz  ' — 
Uruapam  and  Cuernavaca — Resignation  and  flight  of 
Diaz — The  interregnum — Dangers  and  hopes. 

CHAPTER  XI 
In  a  Field  308 

CHAPTER  XII 

The  Soul  of  Senor  de  la  Barra      .       .       .  .313 

The  murder  of  Madero — Huerta,  Felix  Diaz  and  de  la 
Barra — Death  of  Reyes — The  future  of  Mexico. 


PART  II :  The  Background 

CHAPTER  XIII 

Oaxaca's  Road  of  Life  and  Death    ....  329 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Poetry  in  Mexico   .335 

The  national  library — The  treatment  of  poets — Acuna, 
Quintana  Roo,  Prieto,  Altamirano. 

CHAPTER  XV 
To  Chilpancingo        .......  359 

Chapultepec  :  the  fete  —  The  trains  of  Mexico  —  Tres 
Marias — The  approach  to  Iguala — On  the  road  to  Chili 
—The  unstable  mountain— The  Indians  and  the  motor. 

CHAPTER  XVI 

The  Gamblers  of  Mexico  ......  378 

The  National  Lottery — The  Frenchman  and  Gonzalez — 
The  ritual— Philosophy — The  perambulating  Turk — Bulls, 
horses  and  cocks— Pelota  and  more  philosophy. 

CHAPTER  XVII 
Saint  and  Minstrels   .  398 

Saint  Lawrence,  his  life — His  worshipper  in  Western 
Mexico. 


XX 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  XVIII  PAGE 
Diaz  at  the  Door  of  Hell      .....  405 

CHAPTER  XIX 
An  Anglo-Mexican  Pirate        .       .       .       .  427 

Epilogue  434 

Glossary    .........  437 

A  Few  Notes  on  Pronunciation       ....  440 

(a)  The  Spanish  language  in  Mexico. 

(b)  The  Maya  language. 

(c)  Mexican  place-names. 

A  Note  on  Mexican  Words  in  the  Languages  of 

Europe        .        .        .        .       .  .        .  443 

States  and  Population  of  Mexico     ....  444 

Index   445 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Map  of  Mexico  ..... 

.  inside 

cover 

Facsimile  of  a  coin^  obverse  and  reverse 

title- 

■page 

.  frontispiece 

Don  Enrique  Munoz  Aristegui 

facing  p 

5 

VJCUCial   A4£JL1CH^H»F   JJldV  U  ... 

>} 

5 

Madero  before  his  ascent 

•  )> 

5 

Felicista  soldiers  in  Belem  . 

}) 

15 

A  British  musician  .... 

•  >} 

23 

Antonio  Carillo  ..... 

}) 

23 

In  Merida's  Penitenciary 

33 

23 

A  British  Honduranean 

33 

35 

The  Marconigram  .... 

33 

35 

'  The  door  is  locked  .  .  . 

•  33 

39 

In  Merida's  beautiful  plaza  .       .  . 

33 

45 

Convicts  sweeping  the  streets 

>} 

45 

The  aqueduct  of  Queretaro 

33 

63 

The  cathedral  ..... 

33 

69 

Peasants  in  the  State  of  Veracruz 

33 

91 

Half  an  hour  before  execution 

33 

91 

The  shooting  party  .... 

•  S3 

93 

An  ancient  stone  on  Monte  Alban 

•  33 

109 

The  custodian  of  Monte  Alban  . 

•  33 

109 

xxi 


xxii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Olive  trees  at  Tzintzuntzan        .       .       .      facing  p.  123 

Colonel  Prospero  Cahuantzi .       ...  ,,123 

Our  special  train   „  133 

Building  a  railway  in  Hidalgo     .       .       .  „  133 

After  a  skirmish  in  Chihuahua     .       .       .  „  137 

A  land-owner   „  137 

Yucatecan  horses   „  153 

TomasTec   „  181 

e  II  mondo  e  di  chi  ha  pazienza    .  ,,  205 

A  saint's  return   „  205 

Villavicencio       ......  „  205 

The  market  of  Tuxtla  Gutierrez  .       .       .  „  207 

Madero   „  213 

General  Mucio  Martinez     .       .       .       .  „  219 

General  Felix  Diaz   „  219 

Vice-President  Ramon  Corral      .       .       .  „  219 

A  quack  at  Pachuca    .        .        .        .        .  „  219 

New  Laredo  and  Laredo     ....  „  225 

Pascual  Orozco    ......  „  231 

Madero   „  241 

Between  Veracruz  and  the  capital       .       .  „  251 

Diodoro  Batalla  .       .       .       .       .       .  „  251 

Dr.  Vazquez  Gomez     .       .       .       .       .  „  251 

c  Los  Pujos  Porfiristas '        ....  „  269 

Lake  Patzcuaro  .       .       .       .       .       .  „  275 

How  they  bombard  editors  ....  ,,285 

A'shoofly'         ......  ,,285 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

xxiii 

San  Juan  de  Ulua  ..... 

facing  p.  287 

'  In  full  harmony '  

» 

297 

Zapata  ....... 

si 

305 

'  We  all  complain  .  .  .' 

)} 

309 

Ploughing  ....... 

Si 

309 

At  a  balcony  ...... 

33 

313 

Vice-President  Pino  Suarez  .... 

33 

313 

After  burning  for  five  hours 

33 

315 

f  You  are  taken  swiftly  .  .  .' 

33 

317 

A  street  in  February,  1913  . 

33 

317 

The  spot  where  Madero  was  murdered 

33 

319 

Planning  a  bombardment    .       .  . 

33 

321 

The  Minister  from  the  Motherland 

33 

321 

Francisco  Madero,  senior  .... 

33 

323 

The  spectators  ...... 

33 

323 

The  ruined  tower  ..... 

33 

325 

Mexico,  the  Land  of  Unrest 

33 

339 

The  Alameda  ...... 

13 

339 

Guanajuato  ...... 

33 

351 

The  business  centre  of  Cordoba  . 

33 

355 

Orizaba,  the  extinct  volcano 

33 

365 

A  blackened  cocoa-nut  shell 

33 

373 

Moonlight  on  Lake  Chapala 

33 

383 

The  old  leper  ...... 

33 

383 

The  National  Theatre . 

33 

391 

Plateresque  facade  

33 

403 

On  the  bank  of  the  Viga  canal  . 

">3 

411 

XXIV 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


f  Grave  nihil  est  homini  .  . 

A  new  El  Dorado 

A  blind  man  chanting  his  prayers 

The  domesticated  pirate 

Luncheon  at  Guanajuato 

'  Travellers  in  the  desert  .  .  .' 

Fishing  boat  on  Lake  Chapala 

Tehuantepec  . 

'  Mexico  City  has  no  intention  .  . 

Beside  the  church  of  La  Soledad 


facing  p.  421 
421 
427 
»  427 
431 
431 
431 
431 
435 
435 


Note. — The  lower  illustration  facing  p.  91  and  that  which  faces  p.  93 
were  obtained  after  two  hours  of  midnight  persuasion  of  a  grocer  in 
Tuxtepec  ;  that  facing  p.  181  was  given  me  by  a  gracious  and  learned 
leper  in  Yucatan  ;  the  articles  whose  photographs  face  pp.  205  and 
373  were  gifts  to  me  from  the  Merida  Chamber  of  Agriculture.  For 
the  lower  illustration  facing  p.  285  I  have  to  thank  the  Mexican  Rail- 
way, while  the  National  Railway  of  Mexico  has  been  good  enough  to 
lend  me  five  of  the  views,  and  three  of  the  others  were  provided  by 
Senor  del  Paso,  of  the  Mexican  Financial  Agency.  The  two  beautiful 
photographs  facing  p.  383  are  by  Dr.  H.  A.  Palmer,  late  of  Guadala- 
jara, and  are  copyright  in  the  United  States.  The  remaining  illustra- 
tions are  either  taken  from  Mexican  newspapers  or  are  snapshots  of 


PART  I 
MEXICO  IN  REVOLUTION 


B 


I  MEXICO 

THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 

CHAPTER  I 

COMO  TAPABOCA 

Injustice  is  no  less  than  high  treason  against  heaven. 

Marcus  Aurelius. 

An  expedition  which  the  second  Philip  is  supposed 
to  have  equipped  with  the  munificence  of  20,000 
ducats — seeing  that  his  court  physician,  Doctor 
Francisco  Hernandez,  was  the  leader  of  it — travelled 
through  the  province  of  New  Spain,  made  drawings  of 
the  plants  and  animals,  collected  medicines  and  tested 
them  in  hospitals.  This  expedition,  which  was 
scarcely  recognised  by  Philip,  carried  back  to  Spain 
in  1577  some  eighteen  volumes,  all  but  one  containing 
text  and  illustrations  of  the  natural  history,  while  the 
eighteenth  volume  was  devoted  to  the  Indians* 
customs  and  antiquities.  Hernandez  wrote  in  Latin  ; 
he  translated  portions  into  Spanish,  and  the  natives, 
under  his  direction,  started  rendering  this  book  into 
the  Aztec  language.  All  the  copies  that  were  left  in 
Mexico  have  disappeared.  In  Spain  the  volumes  were, 
with  every  honour,  placed  upon  the  shelves  of  the 
Escorial.  They  were  not  published,  to  be  sure,  but 
they  were  4  beautifully  bound  in  blue  leather,  they 
were  gilded  and  supplied  with  silver  clasps  and 


Don  Enrique  Muiioz  Aristegui 

See  t>.  21 


General  Ignacio  Bravo. 


Madero  before  his  ascent  with  Mr.  Dyott. 

It  is  believed  that  no  other  chief  of  a  state  has  travelled  in  an  aeroplane.  See  i>.  18 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


5 


being  noxious,  and  an  illness  called  by  Mexicans  '  lead- 
poisoning  '  quite  prevalent.  Such  were  certain  of  the 
risks  they  ran  who  wanted  to  make  known  what  they 
considered  to  be  truth.  Not  that  the  truth  was 
always  hateful  to  the  Government  in  Mexico,  but 
they  were  even  as  police  in  many  of  the  States  who 
are  relieved  when  criminals  do  not  walk  straight  into 
their  arms.  Let  truth  go  past  upon  the  other  side. 
.  .  .  Thus,  if  I  have  suppressed  the  names  of  most  of 
my  informants,  I  shall  run  the  risk  of  being  met  with 
disbelief.  And  they  would,  in  the  days  of  Don  Porflrio, 
have  run  the  risk  of  something  even  more  unpleasant. 
You  may  say  that  this  is  plausible,  but  does  not 
guarantee  the  truthfulness  of  my  informants.  We 
will  talk  of  that. 

all,  that  they  were  born  to  hold  their  tongues  and  to  obey.  Let  them 
not  venture  to  discuss,  or  have  opinions  in,  political  affairs.'  Bravo 
punishes  the  Maya  and  the  Mexican,  his  officers  and  privates,  those 
among  his  army  who  have  come  there  in  the  usual  course  of  things, 
and  those  who  have  been  shipped  for  their  political  opinions,  and 
he  punishes  the  native  and  the  foreign  merchant.  Being  angry  with 
the  colonel  in  command  of  the  8th  battalion,  he  announced  that  all 
the  men  would  be  converted  into  beasts  of  burden,  and  with  46  kilos, 
on  their  backs  he  made  them  march  from  Peto  down  to  Santa  Cruz, 
which  is  a  distance  of  some  40  leagues,  and  the  battalion  had  to  be 
renewed.  Ignacio  Bravo  is  the  civil  and  the  military  chief,  he  is  the 
superintendent  of  education  and  of  health,  and  he  receives  the  corre- 
sponding salaries.  But  how  shall  one  man  serve  four  masters  ?  When 
as  military  leader  he  has  sometimes  made  a  swift  advance  he  has 
forgotten  that  he  is  the  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Health,  and  with 
his  men  provided  only  with  two  spoonfuls  of  atole  during  four-and- 
twenty  hours,  it  has  been  necessary  for  them,  so  that  they  could  keep 
alive,  to  eat  the  mules  which  had  not  been  so  fortunate.  But  when 
he  marched  with  five  battalions  (of  600  men  apiece)  there  died  each 
day  some  forty,  and  he  buried  them  in  such  a  fashion  that  it  was  not 
difficult  for  hungry  dogs  to  excavate  their  bodies.  When  it  pleases 
Bravo  to  dispatch  his  men  to  Okop  he  is  neither  acting  as  the  military 
nor  as  the  hygienic  officer,  because  to  occupy  this  low  ground,  which 
is  dominated  by  a  mountain  range,  is  unstrategical,  and  from  the 
Lake  of  Okop  rise  such  deadly  emanations  that  the  men  are  very 
quickly  killed.  It  must  be  said  of  him,  however,*  that  he  does  not 
fear  to  die ;  he  walks  alone,  his  head  bent  down  as  if  in  this  way  to 
avoid  saluting,  and  with  four  or  five  companions  he  will  ride  along 
the  lonely  forest  paths,  and  he  will  ride  upon  that  18-inch  gauge  rail- 
way to  the  coast.    His  wounded  soldiers  he  sends  usually  overland  to 


6        MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


The  writer  of  a  book  on  California  need  only  have  a 
picture  of  the  vegetable  products,  and  behold  !  he 
may  advance  with  great  impunity  whatever  social  and 
political  and  economic  lies  that  please  him.  So 
thoroughly  has  he  bewildered  the  poor  reader  that  the 
criticisms  of  this  individual  will  be  suspended  and  the 
toll-bar  will  be  lifted  up  and  quite  a  horde  of  mis- 
cellaneous statements  can  be  hurried  through.  No 
doubt  that  with  a  set  of  monstrous  photographs 
from  Mexico  it  would  be  possible  for  me  to  strike 
your  judgment,  as  the  saying  goes,  all  of  a  heap, 
and  the  remainder  of  this  book  would  meet  with 
credit.  Certain  inmates  of  the  country  would  object, 
and  you  would  naturally  say  that  they  are  interested 
parties,  either  for  a  patriotic  or  financial  motive.  I 
shall  not,  however,  set  to  work  in  this  way.  I  shall 
beg  you  to  preserve  your  faculties  of  criticism  and 
to  weigh  the  value  of  my  evidence.  And  I  shall  not 
attempt  to  make  this  evidence  seem  better  than  it  is. 
So  many  paths  invited  me,  I  ran  down  one  and  then 

Peto,  five  of  them  escorted  by  an  able-bodied  man,  and  sometimes 
they  are  not  assassinated  by  the  intervening  Indians.  If,  however, 
he  himself  obtains  possession  of  these  Indian  foes  he  burns  them  all 
alive,  his  second  in  command — Blanquete — kicking  back  into  the 
bonfire  anyone  who  manages  to  writhe  beyond  its  reach.  The 
Territory's  wholesale  commerce  is  made  over  chiefly  to  the  son  of 
Don  Ignacio,  who  likes  to  give  concessions  for  the  retail  trade  to 
Turkish  pedlars  that  will  bow  to  his  caprices.  He  insisted  on  two 
Chinese  merchants  being  shot  because  they  had  neglected  a  formality 
— the  payment  of  a  fee,  or  something  of  the  kind. 

One  would  imagine  that  this  warrior  would  fall  with  Diaz,  but  the 
last  I  heard  of  him  was  that  he  had  produced  a  bad  impression  in  the 
capital  of  the  Republic.  He  had  been  commanded  to  remain  there 
while  his  actions  in  the  Territory  were  investigated.  Then  he  dis- 
appeared and  sent  a  message  to  the  Minister  of  Gobernacion  to  inform 
him  that  he  had  repaired  to  his  Quintana  Roo,  and  that  he  had 
resumed  possession  of  his  former  office.  It  was  apprehended  that  he 
meant  to  take  up  arms  against  the  Government,  and  '  as  it  is  well 
known,'  observed  El  Pais,  *  that  the  insalubrious  climate  causes  eighty 
men  to  perish  out  of  every  hundred  who  go  thither,'  a  campaign  was 
contemplated  with  abhorrence. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


7 


another,  and  I  had  no  time  to  look  at  every  bush. 
For  instance,  when  the  priests  of  Yucatan  obliged  me 
to  consider  them  I  did  not  follow  the  advice  of  a 
religious  Yucateco  and  examine  each  one  very  closely. 
What  I  did  was  to  select  at  hazard  several  parishes, 
and  in  them  to  compare  the  doctor  and  the  lawyer, 
if  there  was  one,  and  the  priest.  I  gathered  many 
tales  about  the  priests,  but  none  did  I  believe  till  my 
religious  friend  acknowledged  it  was  true.  The 
Mexicans,  he  said,  have  from  the  time  of  Don  Benito 
Juarez  had  an  education  that  is  secular,  which  pre- 
disposes them  to  scurrilous  remarks  about  the 
clergy.  I  could  not  have  found  an  arbitrator  friend- 
lier to  them  than  is  my  friend,  and  I  have  printed 
nothing  on  this  topic  nor  permitted  anything  which 
he  rejected  to  assist  in  moulding  my  opinions.  Thus 
at  many  points  I  had  recourse  to  those  who  would  be 
anxious  to  persuade  me  to  fling  overboard  that 
special  information.  As  I  say,  it  was  at  many  points, 
because  I  had  to  mourn  the  loss  of  such  a  multitude 
of  stories  that  I  could  not  bring  myself  to  let  them 
all  be  tested  so  severely,  and  it  therefore  may  be 
false  about  the  barbers  of  Campeche,  that  they  shave, 
or  rather  the  apprentices  shave,  any  beggar  free  of 
charge  on  Saturdays,  if  he  is  blind.  ...  So  far  as 
humanly  was  feasible,  the  statements  of  this  book 
have  been  subjected  to  a  stern  and  cold  examination. 
It  is  not  for  me  to  swear  that  in  these  pages  there  is 
no  fierce  sarcasm,  like  that  of  Mrs.  Alec  Tweedie. 
'  Diaz,'  she  says,  '  has  never  shown  favouritism.  His 
warmest  friends  hold  no  office.'  She  refers,  one  may 
presume,  to  General  Ignacio  Martinez,  who  was  wont 
to  ride  with  Diaz  every  Sunday,  and  who  does  not 
hold  an  office  for  the  reason  that  the  President  com- 
manded his  assassination.    Then  she  tells  us  that 


8        MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


among  the  decorations  of  Porfirio  there  was  the 
Cross  and  Star  of  Constancy  of  the  First  Order. 
Likewise,  with  the  best  will  in  the  world,  I  may  have 
fallen  into  errors  quite  as  serious  as  those  of  Mrs. 
Alec  Tweedie.  6  Madero,  who  has  laid  him  low,'  she 
says,  6  was  a  man  more  or  less  put  into  office  by  Diaz 
himself.'1  Several  of  my  statements  will  seem  as 
remarkable  as  this,  but  Mexico  is  a  surprising  coun- 
try ;  and  I  have  been  on  the  watch.  A  statement, 
after  all,  need  not  be  true  because  it  happens  to  be 
dull. 

In  Mexico  it  was  not  difficult  to  gather  information 
— printed,  written,  whispered — for  the  people  who 
were  on  the  side  of  the  authorities,  and  also  those  who 
sided  with  the  angels,  had  a  lot  to  tell  you.  Books 
appear  to  be  completely  favourable  or  completely 
the  reverse.  It  is  a  fault ;  but  when  I  studied 
Yucatecan  priests  and  asked  continually  for  the  name 
of  one  who  had  some  merit,  I  was  told  of  Father 
Gongora  ;  and  when  I  asked  again,  then  I  was  told  of 
Father  Gongora ;  and  when  I  asked  again,  then  I  was 
told  of  Father  Gongora.  So  with  my  book ;  it  would 
be  more  artistic  and  it  would  be  more  convincing  if 
I  could  have  put  more  sunlight  in  the  gloom.2  Ap- 

1  Perhaps  this  is  a  printer's  error,  and  instead  of  '  office '  she  wrote 
'  prison.'  Otherwise,  as  Don  Francisco  I.  Madero  never  held  an  office, 
I  can  scarcely  understand  what  Mrs.  Tweedie  means.  And  she  does 
not  seem  to  be  one  of  those  gay  and  sweeping  writers  who  refuse  to 
condescend  to  details,  for  she  talks  of  Senor  Landa's  'handsome 
spouse  Sofia,'  and  concerning  Limantour,  she  talks  about  his  '  lovely 
teeth.' 

s  4  He  is  incongruous,  injudicious,  crude,  and  rather  hysterical,' 
said  an  American  reader  of  my  MS.  ;  '  there  is  an  absence  of  charm ' ; 
while  his  description  of  a  lynching  party  would,  I  have  no  doubt,  be 
charming.  'The  invincible  animus  is  so  exceedingly  obvious.'  And 
if  this  gentleman  had  been  a  Mexican  official  under  Don  Porfirio,  I 
think  it  very  probable  my  animus  would  have  been  roused.  There 
was  a  frigid,  callous  and  inhuman  school  in  the  United  States  which 
utterly  declined  to  credit  even  such  abuses  as  the  Government  of 
Mexico  admitted.    'He  is  unconvincing.'    Woe  is  me. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


9 


parently  the  most  repulsive  circumstances  can,  if 
treated  properly,  dissolve  into  the  mist.  Another  of 
these  ladies,  an  American,  Mrs.  Marie  Robinson- 
Wright,  who  has  for  years  unflinchingly  attended  to 
the  Mexican  and  such  Republics,  says  about  Cam- 
peche  that : 

wild  beasts  and  hostile  Indians  are  not  the  greatest 
perils  in  that  tropic  forest.  Terrible  tales  are  told  of 
enormous  serpents  which  hurl  themselves  from  the  trees 
with  the  force  of  a  catapult,  by  one  twist  of  their 
sinuous  coils  crushing  the  life  out  of  a  man  on  horse- 
back, and  swallowing  smaller  animals  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye.  Even  worse  than  the  giant  boa  is  the  small 
vibora  de  sangre^  whose  bite  causes  the  blood  of  man 
or  beast  to  ooze  through  the  pores  of  the  skin  until  the 
veins  are  empty  and  the  victim  dies  of  exhaustion. 
There  are  also  tiny  vipers,  the  exact  colour  of  the 
leaves  under  which  they  lurk,  whose  sting  is  certain 
death.  .  .  .  And  yet  life  is  almost  ideal,  and  invariably 
the  stranger  in  Southern  Mexico  is  astonished  at  the 
magnificence  in  which  the  wealthy  planters  live. 

But  I  have  not  sufficient  Gongora  for  all  occasions. 

A  facile  mode  of  gaining  credit  is  to  spill  discredit 
on  the  others,  but  if  people  gave  themselves  the 
trouble  of  composing  books  on  modern  Mexico  or  on 
the  President,  I  am  compelled  in  courtesy  to  read 
them.  And  if  there  be  only  few  by  living  writers 
in  the  English  language  that  I  think  altogether  ad- 
mirable— the  works  of  Saville,  Maudslay,  Lumholtz 
and  Flandrau — I  do  not  wish  to  insinuate  that  I  give 
a  more  truthful  picture  than  the  rest.  Godoy's  book, 
I  can  say  at  once,  is  ludicrous.  He  is  the  man  whom 
Don  Porfirio  had  sent  as  Minister  to  Cuba,  and  to 
demonstrate  that  he  was  a  diplomatist  he  dipped  his 
pen  in  undiluted  treacle.  What  he  will  do  now  I 
know  not,  but  so  long  as  Mexico  submitted  to  the  old 


10       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


regime  we  had  the  sickly  thought  that  if  the  President 
delayed  to  send  him  as  Ambassador  to  Washington 
he  surely  would  continue  writing.  There  is  a  large 
interval  between  this  personage  and  Mr.  James 
Creelman,  who  is  well  known  for  his  interview  with 
Don  Porfirio  and  now  has  given  us  a  book.  I  under- 
stand that  in  the  States  he  has  a  reputation  for  un- 
swerving accuracy,  and  to  judge  him  by  the  standard 
of  Godoy  would  be  an  outrage.  Find  two  or  three 
mistakes  when  you  are  reading  him  at  random  and  it 
will  be  serious.  In  Yucatan  he  did  not  hear  the  truth 
about  the  exiled  Yaquis  (he  was  handicapped,  be- 
cause in  all  the  week  or  ten  days  that  he  stopped 
there  it  is  scarcely  probable  that  he  met  any  Yaqui 
at  a  banquet) ;  and  in  Mexico  he  clearly  suffered 
from  the  handicap  of  a  prodigious  sleep,  so  that  his 
observations  could  not  start  before  the  dawn,  and 
never  did  he  hear  the  raucous  church-bells.  '  The 
church,'  he  says,  '  is  silent  save  within  her  own  walls.' 
And  I  think  that  Mr.  Creelman  is  much  handicapped 
by  an  excessive  courtesy.  6 1  have  so  many  friends,' 
quoth  Don  Porfirio,  and  Mr.  Creelman  simply  re- 
produces this  remark.  Another  handicap  is  one  that 
always  is  attached  to  illustrated  interviews — one  has 
to  go  to  press  a  long  time  previous  to  publication. 
'  Except  the  Yaquis  and  some  of  the  Mayas,'  said 
Porfirio  Diaz  in  December,  1907,  '  the  Indians  are 
gentle  and  they  are  grateful.'  The  interview  appeared 
in  March,  1908,  and  I  suppose  the  printer  set  it  up 
before  the  26th  of  January,  and  declined  to  let 
the  massacre  of  Orizaba  be  the  pretext  for  correc- 
tions. 

So  much  then  for  the  authorities  who  had  the 
Government's  approval.  On  the  other  side  is  Mr. 
Turner's  '  Barbarous  Mexico,'  which  I  would  sooner, 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


11 


in  the  sultriness  of  Tonala1  that  I  am  undergoing, 
be  invited  to  confirm  than  to  deny.  Don  Joaquin 
Peon,  a  Yucatecan  hacendado,  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
'  New  York  Times  '  wherein  he  undertook  to  ridicule 
the  Yucatecan  part.  Some  slips  one  does  discover 
certainly — the  Yaqui  couples  were  divided  in  the 
first  years  of  the  importation,  those  who  subsequently 
came  to  Yucatan  found  that  their  purchasers  had 
gained  some  culture  or  had  culture  thrust  upon  them  ; 
also  in  the  haciendas  people  are  not  kept  away  from 
the  physician  any  more  than  valuable  mules  are  kept 
from  the  veterinary  surgeon ;  also  Mr.  Turner's 
artist  gave  the  people  Mexican  instead  of  Yucatecan 
costumes.    But  the  worst2  of  Mr.  Turner  is — I  quote 

1  The  saying  is  that  when  a  native  dies  he  takes  his  blanket  with 
him. 

2  I  should  not  have  mentioned  the  labours  of  Mr.  Percy  F.  Martin, 
f.r.g.s.,  if  it  were  not  for  a  review  he  wrote  in  a  financial  paper  of 
Mr.  Turner's  book,  reviling  it.  The  two-volume  book  of  Mr.  Martin 
could,  I  think,  have  been  written  by  a  careful  man  in  Sussex ;  what  was 
needed  was  a  good  collection  of  official  papers  from  Mexico  and  from 
a  few  capitalists.  It  is  quite  an  interesting  book,  just  as  a  directory 
of  Sussex  would  have  been.  With  regard  to  Mr.  Turner,  he  says 
that  some  of  the  statements  are  as  ignorant  as  they  are  inaccurate. 
But  later  on  he  says  that  the  prison  system  of  Mexico  is  of  a  *  much 
more  lenient  and  humane  nature  than  that  of  any  country  in  either 
the  New  or  the  Old  World. '  Most  people  will  submit  that  Mr.  Percy 
F.  Martin,  f.r.g.s.,  had  better  not  diverge  from  his  directorial  work 
if  he  is  going  to  make  such  statements  that  are  of  appalling  ignor- 
ance and  strikingly  inaccurate.  And  yet  believing,  with  the  sage, 
that  it  is  better  to  sit  than  to  stand,  does  he  regard  complacently 
the  long  rooms  in  San  Juan  de  Ulua  in  which  men  sit  all  day  in 
darkness  ?  As  you  enter  through  the  only  door  (there  are  no  windows) 
you  see  two  long  rows  of  eyes  that  glitter  ;  well,  he  may  believe  that 
it  is  much  to  be  preferred,  more  lenient  and  humane  in  fact,  to  cause 
a  man  to  lie  down  than  to  sit,  and  thus  he  may  approve  the  floggings 
which  have  this  result ;  he  may  believe  that  it  is  better  to  be  sleeping 
than  awake — if  so  he  will  approve  the  slumber  brought  about  by 
those  who  have  the  privilege  of  selling  drink  to  their  companions ; 
finally,  he  may  believe  it  is  better  to  be  dead  than  living—  and  if  so, 
I  follow  him  when  he  insinuates  that  in  the  Old  World  we  are  not  so 
lenient  and  humane  as  to  shoot  dead  our  Abelardo  Anconas  or  cremate 
alive  our  Emilio  Ordonezes  or  put  prisoners,  one  after  another,  into 
the  non-disinfected  typhoid  cells  of  Belem  or  the  tuberculosis  cells  of 
San  Juan  de  Ulua,  where  the  lot  of  the  '  political '  in  Don  Porfirio's 


12       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


a  gentleman  who  did  not  wish  to  be  but  was  a  Gover- 
nor in  Mexico — the  worst  of  Mr.  Turner  is  that  he  is 
pretty  full  of  truth.  His  book  does  not  pretend  to 
be  descriptive  of  the  whole  of  Mexico,  but  merely  of 
those  parts  which  are  most  infamous.  Don  Joaquin 
draws  an  attractive  picture  of  the  lifelong  idyll  in 
the  haciendas,  but  he  does  not  yet  completely  domi- 
nate our  language,  and  when  he  describes  the  land 
on  which  the  Indian  is  allowed  to  plant  his  beans  and 
so  forth,  he  refers  to  it  as  of  an  inexhaustible  fertility, 
whereas  he  means  the  opposite,  or  else  has  an  imagina- 
tion of  that  same  calibre.  The  book  which  Mr.  de 
Fornaro  wrote  on  '  Diaz,  Czar  of  Mexico,'  was 
formally  denounced  as  an  immoral  thing,  and  was 
forbidden  the  Republic.  Mr.  Carlo  de  Fornaro  is  a 
British  subject,  born  in  India  of  Italian  parentage, 
but  he  acquired  his  immorality  when  he  was  brought 
to  Mexico  to  serve  as  the  art  editor  of  1  El  Diario,'  a 

day  included  all  these  items.  Under  the  Maderist  Government  poor 
Mexico  (if  not  Mr.  Percy  F.  Martin)  was  emerging  out  of  darkness  and 
it  seemed  as  if  one's  reference  to  such  horrible  iniquities  need  never- 
more be  couched  in  the  present  tense.  If  Mr.  Percy  Martin,  f.r.g.s., 
will  take  the  trouble  to  ask,  as  I  have  asked,  British  employers  of  labour 
in  the  State  of  Sonora,  he  will  hear  that  there  are  no  workers  as  good 
as  the  Yaquis.  '  It  may  be  news  to  Mr.  Turner,'  he  says,  'to  learn 
that  the  Yaquis  are,  and  always  have  been,  a  wild  horde  of  savages, 
absolutely  untractable  and  unmanageable.  For  years  the  Mexican 
Government  has  been  endeavouring  to  pacify  them  and  to  make 
them  more  friendly  ;  all  efforts,  however,  have  been  unavailing,  and 
the  tribes  remain  absolutely  unsubdued.'  Yes,  I  believe  this  will  be 
news  to  Mr.  Turner.  The  savages  were  those  who  sent  the  Yaquis 
into  exile  and  secured  their  fertile  lands.  One  word  is  true  in 
Mr.  Martin's  sentence,  for  the  Yaquis  cannot  be  subdued.  From 
Guaymas  to  San  Bias  a  boat  was  taking  between  500  and  600  of 
them,  under  barbarous  conditions,  into  exile.  Before  they  reached 
San  Bias  six  women  had  jumped  overboard.  Mr.  Percy  F.  Martin 
says  that  Mr.  Turner  almost  conveys  the  idea  that  he  has  some 
personal  grievance  to  ventilate.  That  is  what  they  always  say,  those 
writers  who  lack  personality.  And  it  appears  to  me  that  it  is  to  the 
credit  of  a  man  if  he  does  not  regard  the  natives'  plight  as  in  a 
theatre  you  watch  a  play — impersonally.  ...  In  Mr.  Martin's  favour, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  supposed  that  he  is  ignorant  of  the  true 
facts  of  the  case. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


13 


very  reputable  organ.  He  was  there  enabled  to  ab- 
sorb much  information  on  the  government  of  Don 
Porfirio,  of  course  less  moral  than  one  could  desire. 
This  was,  however,  not  the  reason  why  in  the  United 
States — he  having  gone  there  for  the  publication  of 
his  book — they  thrust  him  into  prison  for  a  year, 
with  a  supply  of  ink  and  paper.  He  had  libelled 
Don  Porfirio,  they  said.  Perhaps  the  next  book, 
which  I  understand  he  wrote  in  prison,  will  be 
suave ;  but  an  Italian  artist,  even  if  he  should  be 
born  in  India,  cannot  be  expected  to  control  his 
pen.  He  has  much  more  of  unembroidered  truth 
than  has,  for  instance,  Mrs.  Tweedie,  since  that 
virtue  finds  its  way  into  the  office  of  a  journal  much 
more  easily  than  to  the  dinner-parties  and  sublime 
receptions  which  claimed  all  too  many  of  that  lady's 
nights.  '  Unknown  Mexico  '  and  '  New  Trails  in 
Mexico,'  by  Carl  Lumholtz,  which  deal  with  Indians 
of  the  west  and  north-west,  are  two  books  I  cannot 
praise  without  presumption.  '  Viva  Mexico,'  by 
Charles  Flandrau,  portrays  the  common  round  of 
life  in  a  remote  plantation  of  the  State  of  Veracruz  ; 
its  varied  pictures  of  the  natives  and  the  settlers  are  not 
less  delightful  on  account  of  being  true.  Those  who 
wish  for  an  authoritative  guide  to  the  antiquities  of 
Mexico  can  place  themselves  with  every  confidence 
in  Mr.  Marshall  Saville's  care.  This  profound  and 
brilliant  scientist,  Professor  at  Columbia  University 
of  American  Archaeology,  is  much  respected  by  his 
fellow-students,  as  one  may  see,  for  example,  in  the 
pages  of  Carl  Lumholtz.  Although  Marshall  Saville 
was  not  born  till  1867,  he  has  made  his  sixteen 
expeditions  into  Mexico,  spent  several  years  amid 
the  ruins  of  Honduras  and  of  Guatemala,  has  begun 
to  publish  monumental  works  on  the  antiquities  of 


14       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Ecuador  and  of  Columbia  :  only  one  of  these  impor- 
tant volumes  is  in  the  library  of  the  British  Museum. 
Probably  the  best  guide  that  we  have  among  us  to 
the  antiquities  of  Southern  Mexico,  is  Mr.  A.  P. 
Maudslay,  an  Englishman.  His  reputation  is  among 
the  learned. 

He  who  wrote  about  Porfirian  Mexico  could  some- 
times gather  facts  inside  the  office  of  a  newspaper. 
Many  of  them  had  arrived  by  post,  because  the 
telegrams  were  stripped  and  dressed  again  by  legal 
bandits  on  the  road.  These  gentry  had  so  much  to 
do  that,  though  the  papers  oftentimes  protested,  they 
refused  to  hurry :  a  telegram,  say  from  Chihuahua, 1 
came  into  the  capital,  to  that  revising  office  ;  there 
blue  pencils  set  to  work  and  india-rubber  also,  loyal 
officers  were  brought  to  life  again,  the  wounded  were 
in  flawless  health  and  the  insurgents  died.  The 
telegrams  on  other  subjects  likewise  underwent 
revision,  the  fair  copy  was  transmitted  to  the  editor  ; 
but  once  at  least — it  was  in  February,  1911 — the 
original,  with  the  corrections  scrawled  across  it,  was 
delivered.  And  as  Mexico  was  then  emerging  out 
of  barbarism,  it  was  going  to  be  presented  by  the 
editor  to  a  museum.  Telegrams  in  cypher  were 
forbidden,  and  it  would  be  tantalising  to  have  news 
you  may  not  publish.  So  the  facts  arrived  by  letter, 
though  the  envelope  was  often  steamed  and  then, 
according  to  the  paper,  they  were  printed  or  with- 
held. There  was  not  nearly  so  much  freedom  then  as 
in  the  days  of  Maximilian  or  Benito  Juarez.  The 
subsidised  Press  was  bad,  the  Press  that  wanted 
to  be  subsidised  was  worse — they  treated  many  facts 
as  if  they  were  insurgents.  And  the  independent 
papers  published  at  their  peril.  When  the  revolution 
1  Pronounced:  Chee-wa-wa. 


Felicista  soldiers  firing  from  the  ruins  of  Belem  Prison, 

Februarj',  19 13. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


15 


started  in  1910,  I  believe  that  during  ten  days  half 
a  dozen  papers  were  suppressed  in  the  capital  alone, 
and  not  merely  were  they  suppressed,  but  the  editors 
were  thrown  into  Belem,  with  such  haste  that  there 
was  no  time  for  a  trial.  Now  Belem — I  weigh  my 
words — is  the  most  noxious  prison  in  the  world.1 
When  they  wanted  to  give  punishment  to  a  policeman 
he  was  sent  there  to  perform  a  little  cleansing  ;  if 
you  bribed  a  man  to  let  you  pay  a  visit  you  were 
bound  to  wear  such  garments  as  you  would  not  mind 
destroying  afterwards.  The  slime  of  ages  and  the 
pestilential  vapours  darken  every  cell.  Two  hundred 
prisoners  could  be  there — I  will  not  say  comfortably ; 
as  a  rule  it  held  between  4000  and  5000 — and  if  it 
were  not  for  murder  and  the  everlasting  typhus  one 
could  hardly  have  existed.  But  even  Belem  did  not 
always  put  a  muzzle  on  the  truth.  How  often  this 
occurred,  though,  I  could  judge  when  I  contrasted 
what  I  saw  in  print  with  that  which  editors  had  told 
me.  There  was  least  divergence,  that  is  over  any 
length  of  time,  with  4  El  Pais,'  the  organ  of  the 
Church.  In  Mexico,  despite  the  strictest  legislation, 
there  is  hardly  any  limit  to  the  power  of  the  clergy, 
and  when  4  El  Pais  '  spoke  out  the  truth  about  the 
prison  and  the  Revolution  it  was  safer  far  than  all 
the  other  independent  sheets.  To  say  that,  when 
the  Revolution  started,  these  brought  punishment 
upon  themselves  by  virulence  of  language  is  beside 
the  point — an  article  which  caused  the  death  of  '  El 

1  An  authoress,  Dolores  Jimenez  y  Muro,  spent  several  months  in 
Belem  because  she  walked  in  the  procession  of  the  11th  September 
(vide  page  216)  carrying  a  flag.  In  Belem  certain  warders  made  an 
effort  to  assault  her.  With  the  captives,  male  and  female,  who  were 
unprovided  with  a  pen  or  other  means  of  vengeance,  they  accom- 
plished their  desires  by  using  marihuana,  the  deadly  native  drug. 
The  head  of  the  establishment  was  authorised  to  add  long  months  to 
any  sentence  on  the  information  of  the  warders. 


16       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Paladin  '  and  the  inevitable  Belem  for  its  editor,  a 
gentleman  who  had  for  fifteen  years  preached  brother- 
hood among  the  Mexicans,  was  positively  statesman- 
like— and  are  they  not  provoked,  good  God  ?  One 
day  the  Government  determined  that  it  could  not 
tolerate  '  El  Pais  '  any  longer,  and  they  closed  the 
office  several  hours  before  a  new  machine  was  to  be 
blessed  by  the  Archbishop,  for  the  circulation  had 
gone  up  so  greatly  that  the  old  equipment  could  not 
cope  with  it.  The  editor  was  wanted,  but  as  every 
house  of  Catholics  which  had  a  secret  room  entreated 
him  to  be  their  guest  he  stayed  inside  the  capital 
and  he  would  never  have  been  found.  The  reptile 
Press  anticipated  that  they  would  inherit  the  fine 
circulation  of  their  foe  ;  some  days  elapsed  and  '  El 
Pais  '  was  in  the  field  again,  amid  rejoicings  of  the 
Catholics  and  of  the  Liberals  and  of  the  creditors. 
So  swiftly  did  the  circulation  rise,  that  in  the  briefest 
time  the  Buenos  Ayres  6  Prensa '  was  the  only 
Spanish  journal  in  America  which  was  not  beaten. 
The  chief  creditors  of  '  El  Pais '  are  Messrs.  Goetschel, 
Jews  from  France,  whose  stock  is  registered  under 
the  names  of  five  priests.  ...  A  journalist  less 
prosperous  was  Filomeno  Mata,1  who  assisted  Diaz 
in  the  days  of  Tuxtepec  ;  he  had  been  thirty  times 
in  Belem,  where  he  kept  a  bed.  Another  one  has 
been  in  the  profession  half  a  century,  and  Don  Porfirio's 
friend.  But  growing  old,  he  seemed  to  have  become 
too  independent.  His  paper  was  suppressed,  he  made 
a  personal  appeal  to  Don  Porfirio,  was  promised 

1  '  The  hardships  of  the  last  imprisonment,'  says  a  local  journal, 
'  were  too  great  for  a  man  so  far  advanced  in  years.'  He  died,  aged 
64,  at  Veracruz,  on  2nd  July,  1911.  This  indomitable  worker  for  the 
cause  of  Mexican  freedom  had  at  least  survived  the  tyranny  of  Diaz. 
He  who  suffered  many  cruelties  and  hardships  from  the  Government 
was  now  shown  every  honour,  and  was  buried  at  the  Government's 
expense. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


17 


justice,  and  the  next  day  had  a  visit  from  the  Pro- 
curator of  the  Republic,  who  explained,  while  weeping, 
that  he  had  his  orders  which  he  could  not  disobey. 
One  might  suppose  that  from  this  source  I  should 
receive  embittered  information.  But  the  victim  is  a 
Mexican  Montaigne. 

However  much  I  came  to  be  prejudiced  in  favour 
of  those  who  were  against  the  Government  and  most 
of  the  authorities,  I  do  not  think  that  I  accepted 
anything  of  any  moment  till  I,  being  fallible,  had 
satisfied  myself  it  was  more  right  than  wrong.  The 
Government  would  have  been  much  astonished  had 
they  known  some  of  my  sources  ;  neither  these  nor 
private  people  could  I  name,  with  one  or  two  excep- 
tions ;  such  was  the  Republic  under  Diaz.  ...  I  am 
quite  aware  that  Mexicans  incline  to  one  extreme  1 
or  to  the  other,  but  if  I  go  on  protesting  that  I  never 
was  unduly  credulous,  I  shall  protest  too  much. 
Perhaps  it  is  advisable  to  give  some  illustration  of 
the  method  which  I  followed  when  in  Yucatan. 
'  The  Times  '  had  asked  me  to  devote  an  article — 
the  sixth  one  of  the  series — to  the  native  question, 
and  as  there  had  been  a  good  deal  written  on  the 
Mayas  and  their  Yaqui  comrades,  it  was  necessary 
that  I  should  go  down  to  Yucatan.  The  British 
Minister,  whose  constant  kindness  to  me  I  shall  not 
forget — he  placed  his  knowledge  and  his  library  at 

1  But  often  their  exaggerated  statements  are  the  children  of  their 
courtesy.  I  think  they  seldom  sign  a  book  or  photograph  for  you, 
but  they  apply  to  you  the  epithet  '  distinguido. '  And  when  two  or 
three  newspapers  called  me  the  '  redactor,'  or  the  '  redactor-correspon- 
sal '  of '  The  Times,'  I  paid  no  attention  to  the  obvious  absurdity  which 
called  me,  as  I  thought,  the  '  editor '  or  the  '  editor-correspondent '  of 
'  The  Times. '  Apparently,  though,  this  expression  means  nothing  more 
than  a  member  of  the  editorial,  as  opposed  to  the  advertising,  side  of 
a  paper,  and  one  of  the  London  editors  subpoenaed  by  '  The  Times ' 
had  asked  us  to  ask  him  this  question  in  the  witness-box.  But 
unfortunately  he  was  never  put  into  the  box. 


18       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


my  disposal — had  cherished  the  intention  of  a  visit, 
since  the  Anti-Slavery  and  Aborigines  Protection 
Society  was  quite  reluctant  to  accept  his  view  of  the 
conditions,  as  he  had  embodied  them  in  a  dispatch 
to  Sir  Edward  Grey.  But  just  about  this  time  Sir 
Reginald  (then  Mr.)  Tower  was  promoted  from  the 
diplomatic  stagnation  of  Mexico  to  Buenos  Ayres. 
And  he  certainly  escaped  a  world  of  trouble,  for  if 
he  had  travelled  to  the  hot  peninsula  he  would  have 
been  accompanied  by  Don  Olegario  Molina,  the 
then  Minister  of  Fomento  [Board  of  Trade],  ex- 
Governor  of  Yucatan.  Don  Olegario,  a  man  who  has 
not  only  made  himself  but  all  his  family,  down  to 
the  nephews  and  the  sons-in-law  of  cousins,  is  a 
stranger  to  fatigue,  and  Sir  Reginald  would  have 
found  it  difficult  to  get  away  from  him.  I,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  only  called  upon  to  get  away  from 
ordinary  people,  those  to  whom  Don  Olegario  had 
given  me  benignant  introductions,1  wherein  it  was 
stated  that  my  sentiments  would  surely  not  be  those 

1  Such  letters  are  not  always  of  assistance  in  Yucatan,  as  the 
English  aviator,  Mr.  Dyott,  found  in  1912  when  some  of  the  influential 
people  to  whom  he  had  introductions  took  to  bombarding  him  with 
cocoa-nuts.  His  contract  said  that  he  must  fly  at  Merida,  but 
Barbachano  the  impresario  acknowledged  that  the  neighbourhood  is 
ill  adapted  for  such  exercises  on  account  of  rocks  and  cactus.  It  was 
settled,  therefore,  that  the  flying  should  be  at  Progreso  by  the  sea. 
The  contract  also  said  that  Mr.  Dyott  would  not  be  required  to  give 
the  show  if  there  should  be  a  wind  exceeding  15  miles  per  hour ;  he 
pointed  out  to  the  Governor  that  the  speed  was  nearly  45,  and  that  a 
neighbouring  windmill  would  not  be  revolving  if  the  wind  were  less 
than  20.  The  Governor  assured  him  that  there  was  no  wind  at  all, 
and  in  the  meantime  sent  two  soldiers  to  prevent  the  windmill  going 
round.  The  aviator  did  not  wish  to  disappoint  the  numerous  specta- 
tors, most  of  whom  had  come  the  30  miles  from  Merida.  He  started 
making  preparations,  and  while  he  was  thus  engaged  the  mob  and 
the  committee  pelted  him  with  cocoa-nuts.  The  contract  also  said 
that  when  his  aeroplane  was  ready  to  ascend  he  should  be  paid  by 
Barbachano.  This  would  not  have  happened  if  the  situation  had  not 
been  explained  to  the  spectators,  who  were  so  desirous  that  a  man 
should  fly  in  such  a  gale  that  they  insisted  on  the  impresario  fulfilling 
this  part  of  the  contract.    Mr.  Dyott  then  made  several  good  flights, 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


19 


of  the  conspirators  who  lately  had  been  travelling 
through  Yucatan,  to  gratify  the  Yellow  Press.  '  Oh  ! 
the  ex-Governor's  farm  is  the  worst  of  all.  They 
flog  them  to  death,  and  of  course,  you  see,  the  people 
on  the  farm  only  have  the  owner  of  the  farm  to  be 
their  judge.'1  Thus  in  the  charming,  moonlit  colon- 
nades of  Merida  spoke  one  who  is  a  British  Hondura- 
nean  but  can  boast  a  language  of  his  own,  whereas 
Don  Olegario  pours  out  mellifluent  and  soothing 
periods  of  King's  English.  Those  deep  colonnades 
had  made  me  think  about  Don  Olegario,  whose  hand 
upon  my  shoulder  had  been  gentle  as  the  moon- 
light. When  he  used  to  beam  upon  me  at  the  Board 
of  Trade,  this  fatherly  old  man  could  not  prevent 
his  eyes  from  blessing  me.  '  If,'  so  said  the  British 
Honduranean,  '  I  find  you  in  a  more  close  place, 
you'll  be  having  enough  from  me.'  There  was  an 
indiscreet  policeman  at  our  side,  who  angrily  in- 
formed me  that  his  duty  made  him  be  there.  So  we 
two  went  up  to  my  hotel,  and  this  is  what  he  said 

and  everyone  was  satisfied  save  Barbachano,  who  came  up  with  the 
police  to  the  hotel  that  night  in  Merida — meanwhile  Mr.  Dyott  had 
sent  all  the  money  out  of  Yucatan — and  charged  the  aviator  with  a 
breach  of  contract  on  the  ground  that  he  had  not  flown  by  the  town 
of  Merida,  but  at  Progreso.  It  is  not  allowed,  apparently,  to  have  a 
man  arrested  while  he  dines  in  Yucatan,  and  Mr.  Dyott  lingered  at 
the  table.  During  the  next  days,  when  he  was  in  the  Penitenciary, 
his  food  consisted  of  some  oranges,  and  every  afternoon  at  the  same 
hour  came  Barbachano,  asking  if  he  would  return  a  portion  of  the 
money  or  would  fly  again.  At  last  the  aviator  said  that  he  would  fly, 
he  was  let  out — the  last  train  having  gone  down  to  Progreso  it  was 
thought  that  he  could  not  escape — a  special  engine  was  in  waiting,  his 
intelligent  mechanic  had  arranged  as  to  the  aeroplane,  and  in  a  little 
cargo  boat  they  flew  from  Yucatan. 

1  This  and  kindred  passages  may  give  one  the  impression  that  I 
was  too  much  addicted  to  those  people  who  could  speak  a  sort  of 
English.  But  I  cannot  reproduce  the  words  of  those  who  spoke  in 
Spanish.  Nor  is  it  the  case  that  all  the  English-speaking  Mexicans — 
whatever  was  the  attitude  of  humble  British  sojourners  from  the  West 
Indies — were  the  enemies  of  Don  Porfirio's  system,  though  they 
should  have  been,  for  they  were  usually  men  who  had  been  educated 
here  at  Stonyhurst  or  in  the  United  States. 


20       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


about  the  haciendas :  4  Those  people  can't  come  to 
the  town  '  [they  can.  but  with  difficulty]  ;  '  each 
farm  has  five  or  six  policemen  or  more,  so  that  the 
people  can't  get  out.  There  is  no  justice  for  those 
people.  When  a  man  escapes  from  one  of  those 
farms  they  seek  for  him  as  if  he  did  a  criminal  crime, 
and  he  is  cruelly  flogged  and  he  has  to  work  for  the 
rest  of  his  days.  The  slavery  will  never  abolish  here 
under  no  consideration  ;  the  slaves  on  the  plantation, 
it  is  only  the  encargado  who  can  read  ;  so  that  they 
may  not  be  wise,  the  child,  when  it  is  eight  years  old, 
begins  to  work  for  twelve  cents  a  day.'  Don  Olegario, 
at  all  events,  had  not  descended  to  such  detail,  but 
my  midnight  guest  said  something  which  exhibited 
his  ignorance,  if  nothing  worse.  '  There  was  a  good 
farm,'  he  said,  '  Dr.  Palomeque's,  an  old  man,  he 
treated  the  people  very  well.'  We  shall  speak  of 
Dr.  Palomeque.  But  the  Honduranean's  knowledge 
was  not  limited  to  farms  of  henequen.  -  When  you 
go  to  Dzitas1  and  to  the  branch  line  of  Espita,  that 
part  of  the  world  only  grows  corn  and  beans ;  the 
people  are  half  naked  because  they  have  no  money 
to  buy  clothes,  and  the  country  is  all  prickly.  They 
only  get  If  pesos  a  week.' 

A  custom  which  prevailed  among  the  Persian 
monarchs  was  to  fill  the  mouth  of  any  laudatory  poet 
with  gold  pieces,  but  when  there  succeeded  to  the 
throne  a  ruler  who  was  economical  or  less  addicted 
to  that  special  sort  of  verse,  he  substituted  treacle. 
So  the  poet's  mouth  was  stopped,  as  he  declaimed 
beside  the  saddle  of  his  lord,  it  being  usual  to  pave 
the  royal  progress  through  a  town  with  poems. 
Como  Tapaboca  signifies  in  Spanish  (tapar= to  stop 
up,  boca= mouth)  what  is  applied  to-day  in  Spanish- 

1  For  the  pronunciation  of  Yucatan  place-names  see  Glossary. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


21 


speaking  countries  to  non-laudatory  persons ;  in 
Porfirian  Mexico  it  was  both  gold  and  treacle.  But 
if  you  could  not  digest  them  other  substances  were 
brought  to  bear.  ...  I  went  to  Yucatan  with  no 
intention  other  than  to  look  into  the  slavery,  if  it 
existed,  but  some  various  abuses  forced  themselves 
upon  my  notice.  Half  a  year  ago  there  had  been 
trouble  in  the  State,  because  at  Valladolid  the 
sensuous  despotism  of  Don  Luis  de  Regil,  the  jefe, 
could  no  longer  be  endured — the  flabby,  obstinate 
governor,  Munoz  Aristegui,  would  not  supersede 
him — and  he  was  assassinated,  with  some  others. 
During  four  days  Valladolid,  then  the  second  town 
of  Yucatan  and  afterwards  a  lifeless  place,  was  in 
the  rebels'  power.  Aristegui  rushed  twenty  times  a 
day  to  Mr.  Blake,  not  knowing  what  to  do.  This 
Mr.  Blake,  the  railway  manager,  an  imperturbable 
and  jovial  Englishman  not  thirty  years  of  age,  had 
organised  his  service — after  many  obstacles — so  that, 
unlike  the  Governor,  he  could  at  once  learn  what 
was  happening  in  every  part  of  Yucatan.  Aristegui 
entreated,  also,  that  he  should  advise  him  what  to 
do,  but  the  notorious  general,  who  came  post-haste  to 
the  Peninsula,  ignored  the  local  sovereignty,  for,  after 
having  shot  three  of  the  rebels,  he  took  with  him  one 
hundred  and  sixty  other  citizens  up  to  the  capital  of 
the  Republic.  Such  as  had  a  satisfactory  physique 
were  put  into  the  army,  while  the  rest — untried — 
were  given  leave  to  pay  their  journey  home  ;  a  batch 
of  fifty  others  had  been  tried  in  Yucatan,  had  been 
found  innocent,  and  were,  on  my  arrival,  in  the 
Penitenciary.  But  all  this,  knowing  Mexico  a  trifle, 
would  not  have  induced  me  to  investigate  the  Yuca- 
tecan  wrongs  more  closely  than  the  others.  When  I 
gradually  came  to  do  so,  my  proceedings  irritated 


22       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


not  alone  Aristegui,  who  strove  for  many  afternoons 
to  make  me  listen  to  the  voice  of  reason,  but  the 
editor  and  owner  of  a  journal,  Don  Ricardo  Molina, 
with  whose  method  I  had  little  sympathy.1  His 
uncle  Olegario — of  whom  sufficient  elsewhere — depre- 
cated his  ambitions  to  be  Governor,  but  Don  Ricardo 
persevered  ;  he  now  and  then  addressed  some  callow 
youths — he  was  less  popular  than  wise  ;  in  fact,  he 
was  above  the  average  of  his  fellow-deputies — and 
every  morning  he  addressed  a  number  of  Yucatecans, 
but  the  '  Diario  Yucateco  '  did  not  circulate  beyond 
1100-1200  (including  a  large  free  list  of  officials  and 
others),  whereas  the  independent 4  Revista  de  Merida,' 
at  double  the  cost,  had  a  circulation  of  6000-7000. 
The  '  Diario  Yucateco  '  not  only  occupied  Molina's 
time,  but  claimed  an  annual  allowance  of  about  £8000 
(in  view  of  the  poor  circulation),  but  Molina's  wealth 
is  quite  considerable  and  the  sacred  cause  of  propa- 
ganda was  upheld.  Nor  should  I  have  complained  if 
it  had  not  attempted  to  increase  its  owner's  popu- 
larity at  the  expense  of  me.  Some  who  observed 
that  for  a  week  or  two  I  spent  a  large  part  of  my  time 
with  hacendados  knew,  by  some  inscrutable  deduc- 
tion, that  I  was  an  emissary  from  Porfirio  Diaz,  for 
which  reason  the  Society  of  Workmen  passed  a 
resolution  praying  that  I  would  hear  both  sides  in 
the  matter  of  the  slavery.  (This  may  seem  quite  super- 
fluous, but  they  remembered  Mr.  Creelman.)  Pre- 
sently it  grew  to  be  an  axiom  that  I  was  Don  Francisco 

1  My  lack  of  sympathy  with  those  of  Mr.  Justice  Darling  may  be 
thought  to  be  less  due  to  disapproval  of  his  method  than  to  his 
rigidly  hostile  summing  up.  But  many  of  my  friends  had  dreaded 
the  jocular  methods  of  Sir  Charles  Darling  who,  over  and  over  again, 
laid  himself  open  to  being  publicly  rebuked.  I  had  also  dreaded  the 
indignity  of  having  fault  found  with  my  writings,  and  the  still  greater 
indignity  of  having  them  praised  by  a  man  whose  attempts  upon 
literature  are  so  deplorable. 


A  British  Musician. 

In  the  band  of  Merida's  penitenciary 


Antonio  Carillo.  See* 


In  Merida's  penitenciary. 

The  text,  in  broken  Spanish,  is  a  question  put  to  the  convict  as  to  whether  he  is  all  complete, 
whether  he  is  not  being  devoured,  say  by  the  cat  o'  nine  tails.     He  replies  that  he  has  not  been 
imprisoned  in  England. — From  the  Diario  Yucaieco. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


23 


I.  Madero  ;  he  himself  had  been  in  those  parts  not 
so  many  months  before — but  no  matter.  And  a 
third  group  had  it  that  I  was  the  secretary  of  the 
Anti- Slavery  and  Aborigines  Protection  Society ; 
for  I  was  talking  to  a  multitude  of  people  on  the  labour 
question,  some  of  whom  diverged  from  one  another, 
it  appears,  in  politics.  Then  the  4  Diario  Yucateco .' 
roundly  swore  that  I  was  none  of  these  things,  but 
an  evil  spirit  who  had  come  in  search  of  points,  such 
black  points  as  I  would  exclusively  select.  But 
though  I  stayed  for  many  weeks  and  Don  Ricardo 
persecuted  me  with  zeal,  he  did  not  grow  more 
popular — in  fact,  he  fled  upon  the  boat  which  carried 
me — yet  he  accomplished  something  ;  for  my  visit, 
thanks  to  him,  was  far  from  dull.  So  much,  then, 
as  an  introduction  to  the  mastiff-like  and  sallow 
Don  Ricardo.  In  despite  of  all  his  opulence  the 
'  Diario  Yucateco  '  was  not  independent,  for  it  had 
the  privilege  of  the  judicial  notices  and  thus  was 
indirectly  subsidised. 

The  Penitenciary  is  something  of  a  show-place, 
but  when  I  was  taken  over  it  by  the  director,  an 
assassin  called  Bolardo,  and  regaled  with  beer  and 
with  an  admirable  orchestra  of  murderers  (these  are 
the  inmates  who  stay  long  enough  to  make  it  worth 
while  that  they  shall  receive  instruction),  I  was  not 
shown  everything,  and  it  was  necessary  for  me  to 
return  at  least  three  times  before  I  had  examined  all 
the  bartolinas.  The  director  laughed  good-naturedly 
at  my  attempts  upon  the  Spanish  language,  for  the 
dictionary  he  produced  for  me  had  no  such  word, 
but  only  calabozo  (=cell).  The  prison  had  some 
calabozos,  to  be  sure,  and  they  were  thirteen  feet  by 
nine,  with  a  slab  to  sleep  on,  with  two  ventilators  and 
an  opening  above  the  door.    To  make  a  long  and 


M       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


tedious  story  short,  it  finally  transpired  that  bartolinas 
are  constructed  out  of  calabozos,  by  moving  back  the 
wooden  door  and  taking  out  the  bed  and  blocking 
one  at  least  of  the  two  ventilators  ;  you  could  read 
for  three  or  four  hours  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  and 
in  these  dungeons  several  suspects  had  been  kept  for 
sixty  days,  they  being  gentlemen  of  the  first  families 
who  were  accused  of  trying  to  upset  the  Government. 
Aristegui,  the  well-intentioned  boot  importer,  cannot 
really  be  much  blamed,  for  he  was  only  the  obedient 
servant  of  Don  Olegario,  and  had  been  placed  by 
him  in  charge  of  Yucatan,  when  Diaz,  fearing  the 
enormous  influence  of  Olegario,  brought  him  as 
Minister  up  to  the  capital  of  the  Republic.  Olegario 
continued  thus  to  govern  Yucatan,  and  poor  Aristegui 
received  the  odium ;  he  gave  commands  to  the 
director,  who  was  nothing  loth,  to  keep  these  gentle- 
men in  durance  and  permit  no  exercise  whatever. 
(If  it  is  immodest  I  am  sorry,  but  I  have  to  mention 
that  when  I  had  agitated  for  six  weeks  they  were 
allowed  one  and  a  half  hours'  exercise  per  diem.) 
Bolardo  was  accustomed  to  make  no  distinction 
between  those  who  had  been  sentenced  and  those 
others  who,  sometimes  a  year  and  sometimes 
longer,  waited  for  a  trial.  He  himself  had  slaughtered 
several  of  his  charges  :  some  by  flogging,  some  by 
doing  nothing.  He  was  in  the  alcaldia  (warders' 
room)  one  day,  when  Dr.  Avila  came  in  to  ask  per- 
mission to  obtain  a  patent  remedy  for  someone  whose 
condition  was  alarming.  8  Give  him  a  spoonful  of  what- 
ever you  like,'  said  the  director.  '  I  shall  not  spend 
money  on  such  people.'  When  the  doctor  said  that 
he  could  not  have  the  responsibility,  '  What  does 
it  matter  ?  '  cried  Bolardo,  and  the  invalid — a  big, 
strong  man  of  middle  age  called  Cuitun — died  in 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


25 


two  days.  The  '  Diario  Yucateco  '  said  that  it  was 
monstrous  of  me  to  search  out  these  black  points  in 
the  Penitenciary,  forgetting  that  the  Governor  had 
begged  me  to  go  over  it,  and  surely  my  acquaintance 
would  have  been  too  superficial  if  I  had  not  stepped 
beyond  the  beer  and  orchestra.  The  journalists  of 
Yucatan,  if  they  did  not  offend  the  Government,  were 
not  admitted,  and  it  seemed  that  the  '  Diario  Yuca- 
teco's  '  knowledge  emanated  from  a  curly-headed 
young  reporter  who  had  been  incarcerated  for  a  day 
or  two  because  he  tried,  when  he  was  drunk,  to  set 
fire  to  a  circus.  Now  that  I  had  started  it  was 
requisite  to  probe  the  subject. 

Prisoners  were  flogged  informally,  as  when  Bolardo 
struck  a  student,  Senor  Arcobedo — one  of  the  editors 
of  6  Yucatan  Nuevo  ' — for  not  rising  as  he  entered. 
They  were  flogged  as  when  Bolardo  broke  two  sticks 
and  broke  the  head  of  one  Isidro  Castillo,  who  had 
ventured  to  protest  against  the  treatment  which  he 
suffered  from  a  certain  foreman.  The  director 
struck  him  in  the  presence  of  the  other  convicts,  and 
as  it  was  quite  impossible  to  let  him  take  his  wound 
about  the  streets — two  days  alone  divided  him  from 
liberty — Bolardo  asked  the  jefatura  for  another 
month's  imprisonment,  because  the  man,  he  said, 
was  so  incorrigible  ;  and  a  month  inside  a  bartolina 
cured  the  wound.  Sometimes  the  flogging  was 
conducted  with  formality,  as  in  the  case  of  Manuel 
Fernandez  Boo,  a  Spaniard.  He  had  been  to  school, 
unluckily  for  him,  with  Primitivo  Diaz,  and  they  had 
foregathered  in  Havana,  where  Don  Primitivo  forged 
the  tickets  of  the  lottery  and  was  imprisoned.  Coming 
afterwards  to  Yucatan,  they  gave  him  command  of 
the  secret  police  ;  but  Manuel  Fernandez  Boo  was 
too  loquacious  and  was  locked  up  on  a  charge  of 


c26       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


stealing.  Then  for  three  months  he  was  set  to 
quarry  stones  and  turn  a  wheel ;  if  he  exhibited  a 
trace  of  slackness  he  was  flogged — informally.  Near 
the  beginning  of  each  month  Bolardo  and  a  member 
of  the  Vigilance  Committee  and  a  Government 
representative  walked  round  the  prison  (they  are 
called  the  Revista  de  Comisario)  to  hear  complaints 
about  the  food.  But  when  he  told  them  that  he 
worked  all  day  and  died  of  hunger  they  refused  to 
listen,  and  the  furious  Bolardo  ordered  that  at  four 
o'clock  next  morning  he  should  have  a  hundred  blows ; 
the  implement  is  the  organ  of  a  bull  with  a  steel  rod 
in  it.  The  prison  barber1  occupied  a  cell  precisely 
opposite.  He  saw  the  struggle,  for  the  convict  would 
not  lie  down  prostrate,  and  the  four  men,  after  tele- 
phoning to  Bolardo,  beat  him  anyhow  and  anywhere 
and  till  they  could  no  more  and  till  he  did  not  struggle. 
On  the  evening  of  that  same  day  Bolardo  suddenly 
snapped  out  that  he  must  have  the  hundred 
blows  ;  they  told  him  that  the  punishment  had  been 
inflicted.  6  I  know  nothing  of  it  !  Flog  him  now  !  ' 
retorted  the  director,  and  another  hundred  blows 
were  rained  upon  the  almost  lifeless  body.  There  was 
scanty  justice  then  in  Yucatan,  but  the  member  of 
the  Vigilance  Committee,  Pedro  Reguera,  a  chemist, 
took  an  active  part  in  the  elections  and  was  sentenced 
to  nine  months'  imprisonment.  As  for  Manuel 
Fernandez  Boo,  he  vanished.  Some  say  that  he  was 
deported  to  Quintana  Roo,  while  others  say  he  died 
upon  the  morrow  of  a  flogging.  Certainly  Judge 
Solis,  after  having  seen  the  man  in  prison,  ordered 
that  he  should  be  liberated.   And  Benigno  Fernandez 

1  This  young  man  was  charged  with  stealing  a  watch  worth 
10  pesos,  whereas  he  said  a  comrade  gave  it  him  to  sell.  The  com- 
rade said  the  barber  had  advised  the  theft,  and  even  so  one  thinks 
that  three  years  and  seven  months'  detention  is  excessive.  During 
all  this  period  he  shaved  480  people  a  week  and  was  unpaid. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


Boo,  a  brother,  who  had  served  on  board  the  Spanish 
Transatlantic  boats  and  was  a  burly  man,  killed  some- 
one in  a  drunken  brawl  at  Progreso,  and  lest  he  should 
slay  the  director  of  the  Penitenciary,  in  vengeance  of 
his  brother,  he  was  locked  for  three  years  in  a  cell, 
where  he  became  demented.  As  he  tried  to  hurl 
himself  upon  the  man  who  brought  his  food,  Bolardo 
punished  him  by  giving  only  half  the  ordinary  rations 
and  removing  his  apparel,  so  that  he  was  cold  o' 
nights.  He  went  on  growing  thinner  till  he  died. 
No  doubt  Bolardo  had  been  told  that  herrings,  in  the 
Gaelic  phrase,  6  live  on  the  foam  of  their  own  tails,' 
and  he  desired  to  ascertain  if  some  analagous  capacity 
lay  in  a  sailor.  Another  Spanish  subject  whom  I 
visited,  and  who  for  three  years  out  of  the  five  had 
been  a  lunatic — his  five  years'  isolation  was  a  punish- 
ment for  having  made  an  effort  to  escape — was 
Daniel  Blanco.  He  disturbed  the  neighbouring 
convicts  by  his  intermittent,  random  shouts  all 
through  the  day  and  night.  But  Don  Rogelio  Suarez, 
Spanish  Vice-Consul  and  the  son-in-law  of  the 
omnipotent  Don  Olegario,  said  he  had  looked  at 
Blanco  through  the  door  and  found  him  sane.  A 
friend  of  mine  in  Yucatan,  a  Catalonian  opera-singer, 
tried  to  move  this  consul  to  object  at  least  when 
Spanish  subjects  were  incorporated  nolens  volens  in 
the  army.  '  But,'  said  Don  Rogelio  Suarez,  twirling 
his  moustachios  and  flashing  his  fine  eyes  and  talking 
Spanish  like  a  horse  which  prances,  4  they  have  not 
inscribed  themselves  upon  my  list.'  .  .  .  These  Peni- 
tenciary abominations  were  excused  by  the  authori- 
ties, because  the  prison  was  too  picturesque1  a  place 

1  There  was  an  account  of  such  a  lively  spot  in  *  El  Pais,'  of  April  3, 
1911.  In  Pachuca  prison  dwelt  a  convict,  Pedro  Elizalde,  'who 
enjoys  great  privileges,  and  because  of  his  despotic  conduct  is  with- 
out the  approbation  of  his  colleagues.    One  of  the  abuses  which  they 


28       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


in  other  days :  a  series  of  small  booths  were  set  up 
in  the  patio,  while  you  were  more  or  less  at  liberty 
to  go  into  the  town  and  sleep  with  your  senora.  It 
so  happened  that  one  day  I  asked  the  Governor  if 
there  was  commonly  a  doctor  present  when  a  man 
was  flogged.  He  threw  his  hands  up  and  entangled 
them  in  his  gold  pince-nez  cord  :  '  Upon  my  honour 
as  a  caballero,'  he  exclaimed,  '  there  is  no  flogging  !  ' 
And  impressively  he  bent  his  heavy  body  over 
towards  me  and  he  placed  a  plump  hand  on  my  knee. 
They  flog  the  inmates  of  the  poor-house,  where  a 
vigorous  young  man  (who  entered  on  account  of 
drunkenness)  was  made  the  foreman  and  entrusted 
with  the  task  of  flogging  all  the  others  :  drunkards, 
disobedient  folk,  the  aged  and  the  mad.  As  for  the 
Penitenciary, 1  I  met  a  grave  official  of  the  custom- 
have  against  him  is  that  he  exacts  a  contribution  of  from  3  to  5 
pesos  for  the  balls,  which  it  is  usual  to  celebrate  in  that  establishment, 
and  which  are  nothing  less  than  orgies.  As  a  certain  number  of  the 
prisoners  cannot  pay,  they  are  marked  out  as  enemies  by  some  of  the 
officials .  Elizalde  lends  the  convicts  money,  with  interest  at  25  per 
cent,  which  is  subtracted  from  the  food  allowance  paid  them  by  the 
Government.  He  also  has  the  privilege  of  selling  seeds,  at  any  price 
he  likes. ' 

1  It  compared  unfavourably  with  San  Juan  de  Ulua,  and  was  only 
less  notorious  for  being  more  remote.  In  1893  Don  Rafael  Peon  had 
trouble  with  the  Indians,  who  were  settled  near  his  hacienda.  They 
asserted  that  he  was  appropriating  land  of  theirs,  and  in  reply  he 
ordered  that  they  should  be  flogged.  They  waited  for  him  with  long 
knives  [machetes]  and  one  gun,  which  killed  a  Maya.  Then  the 
Government  had  five  men  shot,  without  a  trial,  and  twenty-one  were 
ordered  to  San  Juan  for  a  period  of  twenty-two  years.  It  was 
illegal  that  they  should  be  sent  to  Veracruz,  but  the  authorities 
across  the  water  took  them  in  return  for  half  a  peso  each  per  diem. 
One  of  them,  called  Justo  Poot,  became  the  private  servant  of  the 
chief  director,  Colonel  Hernandez,  and  was  thus  in  a  position  to  meet 
Yucatecans  in  the  market-place,  and  send  back  word  as  to  the  treat- 
ment of  the  others.  Terrible  as  San  Juan  was  made  for  the  politicals, 
it  offered  some  amenities  for  the  remaining  convicts.  Cigarettes 
could  be  procured  and  books,  whereas  the  library  inside  the  gaol  of 
Merida  was,  to  a  great  extent,  in  order  to  impress  the  tourist :  it  was 
founded  at  the  instigation  of  a  writer  who  for  his  political  and  social 
articles  was  punished  with  a  term  of  four  years'  penal  servitude.  He 
gave  some  fifty  of  the  books  himself,  and  when  he  chanced  to  be 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


29 


house  who,  in  his  capacity  of  prefect  of  the  convicts 
(presidente  del  presidio),  had  seen  perhaps  a  hundred 
floggings.  His  own  penal  servitude  was  owing  to  the 
fact  that  in  the  desolation  of  Campeche  his  chicle- 
workers  fell  upon  him,  and  in  self-defence  he  killed 
a  man.  Not  thinking  for  a  moment  that  he  would 
be  punished  he  came  up  to  Merida,  a  wearisome  long 
journey,  and  informed  the  Governor.  He  is  an  in- 
stance, by  the  way,  of  how  they  used  to  swindle  at 
the  Penitenciary  :  the  rule  was  that  one-third  of 
what  a  man  might  earn  was  for  his  upkeep,  and  one- 
third  was  to  be  given  him  at  the  completion  of  his 
sentence,  and  one-third  was  to  be  sent  out  to  his 
family — but  often  there  was  so  much  discount  that 
the  wife  did  not  receive  a  cent,  and,  being  unable  to 
discover  any  other  means  of  livelihood,  was  driven 
by  the  Government  to  immorality.  The  chicle-owner 
had  600  pesos  in  his  pocket  when  he  came,  he  earned 
some  hundreds  by  his  handiwork  and  owing  to  his 
post  as  prefect,  but  the  treasurer  (who  subsequently 
was  jefe  politico  of  Cuernavaca)  made  off  with  the 
whole  of  it ;  and  when  the  prefect  was  allowed  to 
leave,  the  '  Diario  Oficial '  announced,  in  a  bombastic 
paragraph,  that  as  a  recompense  for  his  good  work 
the  good  authorities  had  gratified  him  with  no  less  a 

again  imprisoned  he  was  not  allowed  to  use  the  library.  Cheap  books 
were  given  by  the  Corporation  of  the  city  every  year  as  prizes,  and  a 
few  days  afterwards  Bolardo  used  to  have  them  piled  up  in  a  patio 
and  burned.  As  for  the  prisoners  at  Veracruz,  when  Olegario  Molina 
entered  into  power  he  looked  askance  upon  the  annual  sum  which 
Yucatan  was  paying  to  San  Juan  de  Ulua.  So  the  twenty-one  were 
carried  back,  and  at  the  station  made  a  fine  show  for  their  families 
and  friends,  because  they  had  good  clothes  and  books  and  trunks, 
which  they  had  either  earned  or  been  regaled  with,  also  cocoa-nuts 
and  many  knick-knacks  they  had  carved  for  sale.  Bolardo  had  the 
clothes  and  books  and  trunks  and  cocoa-nuts  and  knick-knacks  burned 
to  ashes  in  the  Penitenciary.  'There  might  be  epidemics,'  he  ex- 
plained, 'at  Veracruz.'  And  thinking  that  the  convicts  might  be 
discontented,  he  put  all  of  them  for  two  years  into  calabozos,  and 
deprived  them  of  permission  to  receive  their  friends  or  families. 


30       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


sum  than  600  pesos.  .  .  .  Something  has  been  said 
of  the  unhealthy  life  inside  those  bartolinas,  and  I 
learned  from  Dr.  Vega,  chief  of  the  Sanitary  Board, 
that  he  had  made  suggestions  of  reform  in  July,  1909. 
Tuberculosis  might  be  the  result  of  a  prolonged 
imprisonment.  And  Dr.  Vega  did  not  know  if  any- 
thing had  been  effected.  That,  he  said,  was  not  his 
business,  and  the  subject  of  tuberculosis  made  him 
restless.  He  declined  to  speak  another  word ;  he 
banged  the  poor  report  of  1909  upon  the  floor  and 
read  triumphantly  in  French  a  passage  from  a  book 
which  proved  that  cats-o' -nine-tails  are  administered 
to  British  convicts  every  day.  The  sanitary  board 
of  Merida  permits  a  person  with  tuberculosis  to 
expectorate  in  any  tram,  while  they  will  only  disinfect 
the  last  house  he  has  lived  in,  when  he  is  no  longer 
dangerous.  This  Dr.  Vega  is  the  son  of  Colonel  Rabia 
— or,  as  we  might  say,  Colonel  Fury  ;  he  was  seldom 
called  his  proper  name — and  now  the  doctor  thinks 
that  he  himself  is  unimpassioned.  He  had  listened 
to  me,  so  he  told  the  '  Diario  Yucateco,'  with  angelic 
patience. 

One  of  the  most  urgent  matters  dealing  with  the 
Indian  race,  both  on  and  off  the  haciendas,  was  their 
forcible  enrolment  in  the  army.  This,  of  course, 
would  not  so  often  be  the  lot  of  those  who  had  a 
master — he  could  buy  them  out  or  find  a  sub- 
stitute— but  now  and  then  a  puissant  master  would 
employ  this  arm  against  a  servant.  Five  domesticas 
or  women  slaves  incurred  the  wrath  of  Don  Ricardo's 
aunt  in  Merida,  their  mistress.  They  were  flogged 
and  sent  to  one  of  the  Molina  farms,  but  in  the  night 
they  ran  away.  The  major-domo,  Pablo  Ruiz,  was 
charged  with  having  aided  them,  and,  notwithstanding 
that  he  had  a  wife  and  family,  was  forthwith  sent  to 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


31 


fight  the  rebels  in  Chihuahua.  As  a  rule,  the  press- 
gang  operates  on  those  who  are  without  protector  : 
sixty-six  unfortunates  were  shipped  to  Veracruz 
towards  the  end  of  January  ;  some  of  them  indeed 
were  culprits  and  their  lives  were  the  reverse  of  edify- 
ing— one  rare  rogue  would  tell  his  victims  that  he 
was  a  member  of  the  secret  police  force  and  had  been 
conducting  deep  investigations ;  in  this  way  the  scamp 
extracted  heavy  sums  of  money.  But  a  number  of 
the  sixty- six  were  men  who  had  been  charged  with 
being  complicated  in  the  1909  revolt,  and  they  had 
been  declared  not  guilty  ;  yet,  as  the  Governor  told 
me,  the  police  felt  in  their  hearts  that  these  men  were 
not  innocent.  Some  others  had  to  go,  nor  say  fare- 
well to  anyone,  because  of  troubles  with  the  boundary 
marks  at  Muna.  They  asserted  that  the  Govern- 
ment had  sold  to  several  hacendados  property  which 
was  not  theirs  to  sell,  and  they  tore  up  the  boundary 
marks.  Aristegui  acknowledged  to  me  that  the 
ancient  land  books  were  in  Seville ;  it  was  very 
complicated.  But  from  what  I  knew  of  other  parts 
of  the  Republic — in  the  central  district  of  the  State 
of  Tamaulipas  it  did  not  avail  the  Indians  that  they 
had  the  tax  receipts  for  five-and-twenty  years,  while 
only  twenty  are  required  by  law  ;  their  lands  were 
given  by  the  Governor  to  a  friend  of  his,  the  local 
deputy  ;  and  this  is  one  example  out  of  hundreds — it 
was  not  impossible  that  they  had  been  despoiled  at 
Muna.  6  But  apart  from  that,'  said  the  jefe  politico 
of  Merida,  another  Molina,  '  they  were  people  of  the 
vilest  disposition.'  This  was  not  the  case  with  Aniseto 
Tun,  for  instance,  nor  with  Nicolas  Romero;  while 
the  Muna  representative  of  Government  could  tell  me 
nothing  more  enormous  about  Pedro  Segovia  than 
that  he  was  habitually  drunk  on  Sundays.   '  We  have 


32       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


five  balls  in  a  vessel,'  said  the  jefe  politico,  '  four  white 
ones  and  a  black  one.   If  it  is  their  destiny  to  pick  a 

black  ball  '   But  an  ex-jefe  politico,  Don  Augusto 

Peon,  told  me  that,  at  any  rate  in  his  time,  no  white 
ball  was  ever  used.  '  They  leave  here,'  said  the  jefe, 
'  with  a  medical  certificate.  The  man  who  has  a 
physical  defect  is  not  allowed  to  sail.'  But  when  the 
sixty-six  were  carried  to  the  capital  of  the  Republic 
and  again  examined,  Manuel  and  Pedro  Jimenez, 
Moises  Montero,  Felipe  Balam,  Aniseto  Tun  and 
Mauro  Solis  were  found  unsuitable — one  of  them  was 
incapacitated  with  a  fistula,  another  had  the  most 
incurable  disease  :  Montero  was  near  sixty  years 
of  age — so  they  were  stripped  of  uniforms,  and  in  a 
climate  far  less  tropic  than  the  Yucatecan,  were 
abandoned  in  their  underclothing  to  their  own  de- 
vices. 4  We  do  not  know  any  of  their  names,'  said 
Aristegui,  '  for  it  is  the  Minister  of  War  who  has 
them.  They  are  worthless  Indians  who  may  not 
have  been  convicted  in  so  many  words,  but  of  their 
character  the  less  you  say  the  better.'  And  he  was 
offended  when  I  asked  how  soon  the  Yucatecan 
Government  would  bring  them  back — themselves 
they  had  no  money.  6  It  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Minister 
of  War,  and  doubtless,'  said  Aristegui,  '  he  will 
attend  to  it.'  I  ventured  to  remark  that  with  the 
Revolution  General  Cosio  had  enough  to  cope  with, 
and  that  if  the  men  were  not  indemnified  .  Aris- 
tegui jumped  up  and  glared  at  me.  '  Indemnified  ! 
What  nonsense  !  I  must  ask  you  to  depart.'  If 
anyone  endured  a  year  or  two  of  wrong  imprisonment 
the  utmost  he  could  hope  for  was  a  paper  '  dejando 

al  Senor    en  buena  opinion  y  fama  '  (leaving 

Mr.  with  a  good  reputation).   '  No  !  no  !  stop  ! 

I  beg  you,'  said  the  Governor,  'to  sit  down.   I  really 


COMO  TAPABOCA  33 

cannot  authorise  the  State  to  pay.'  And  ultimately 
they  were  brought  back  by  a  fund  the  public  raised, 
and  I  will  not  insinuate  that  as  a  man,  apart  from 
being  Governor,  Aristegui  refrained  from  helping  these 
unfortunates.  He  had  regaled,  we  know,  a  citizen 
who  was  set  free  from  an  erroneous  imprisonment  of 
many  months  with  almost  five  pence  (twenty  centavos) 
of  his  private  purse.  4 1  will  admit  you,'  so  he  said, 
6  into  a  secret.   We  withhold  the  publication  of  their 

names  '    '  Although,'  said  I,  4  '    4  Well,  yes, 

the  law  demands  it ;  but  we  are  benevolent,  we  only 
send  the  evildoers,  and  we  have  to  do  this  with  a 
certain  wariness.  The  public  are  so  foolish.'  It 
appeared  to  me  that  this  might  be  the  case  with 
Dr.  Betancourt,  a  relative  of  Olegario,  because  he 
clearly  did  not  know  what  was  a  fistula.  Aristegui 
snatched  up  his  telephone  and  agitatedly  demanded 
of  the  jefatura  if  this  allegation  could  be  verified. 
He  mopped  his  brow.  4  You  must  see  Betancourt,' 
he  said,  and  the  4  Diario  Yucateco  '  had  the  usual 
article  describing  how  el  ingles  de  inarms — a  some- 
what contemptuous  phrase — was  nonplussed  by  the 
doctor.  I  did  not  succeed  in  meeting  him,  however, 
since  he  suffered  during  the  remainder  of  my  visit 
from  a  most  insidious  ailment  that  permitted  him 
to  go  about  his  business — studying,  maybe,  the  in- 
tricacies of  a  fistula — but  would  not  let  him  undergo 
extraneous  excitements. 

In  the  meantime  Mexico  was  in  the  throes  of 
revolution,  and  the  Government  appeared  to  be 
most  critically  situated.  It  was  not  alone  the  fighting 
in  Chihuahua  and  in  other  States,  it  was  the  dis- 
affection which  was  palpably  upon  the  increase. 
And  I  cabled  Mr.  Willert,  correspondent  of  4  The 
Times  '  in  Washington,  to  ask  if  I  should  send  him 

D 


34       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 

telegrams.  All  the  dispatches  I  had,  in  November 
and  December,  forwarded  about  the  Revolution 
went  through  him,  in  order  to  prevent  us  duplicating  ; 
and  the  cost  from  Mexico  to  Washington  is  relatively 
inconsiderable.  On  the  next  day  (6th  February) 
he  cabled  twice  to  tell  me  to  take  any  steps  to  send 
news  promptly,  also  that  he  had  revived  the  old 
arrangement  with  the  Western  Union  at  El  Paso  on 
the  frontier,  which  I  was  to  use  in  case  of  accidents. 
He  added  that,  as  I  requested,  he  had  put  himself 
into  communication  with  the  Director-General  of 
Federal  Telegraphs  in  Mexico  City,  begging  that  the 
Merida  sub-office  should  be  authorised  to  take  my 
messages  at  press  rates.  Not  a  word  came  from  the 
capital,  and  in  collaboration  with  the  Chief  of  Tele- 
graphs in  Merida  I  cabled  his  superior.  The  style  was 
more  than  suave.  All  through  the  night  there  was 
no  answer,  and  again  I  cabled  (not  so  suavely)  with 
the  rather  ludicrous  addition  of  a  fee  of  fifty  centavos, 
due  on  every  telegram  which  asks  a  favour  from 
officials,  even  if  it  is  to  do  their  duty.  He1  replied 
that  on  the  understanding  I  observed  the  guarantees, 
whatever  those  might  be,  permission  would  be  given, 
and  although  I  had  not  paid  him  for  his  answer  he 
was  out  of  courtesy  replying  in  a  telegram,  but  this 
indulgence  was  not  to  be  taken  as  a  precedent. 
When  I  had  previously  cabled  from  the  capital  4  via 
Galveston  '  there  never  was  the  slightest  trouble  and, 
although  the  Government  flew  in  the  face  of  solemn 

1  This  Don  Camilo  Gonzalez  was  removed  from  office  when  the  sun 
of  Don  Porfirio  had  set.  '  But  there  has  been  down  here  at  least,' 
so  an  American  wrote  recently  to  me  from  Yucatan,  '  surprisingly 
little  paying  of  old  scores.'  One  may  urge  that  this  Gonzalez,  for 
example*  was  but  executing  orders,  but  he  might  have  followed  in  the 
footsteps  of  Saint  Genest,  now  the  patron  saint  of  Spanish  if  not  of 
all  other  shorthand  writers  :  he  refused  to  take  down  some  abomin- 
able rescript  of  the  Roman  Emperor  and  felt  the  consequences. 


A  British  Honduranean  in  Merida's  Hospital. 

The  bearded  gentleman  is  supposed  to  be  Don  Augusto  Peon.  The  seated  person  is  presumably 
the  conventional  type,  in  those  parts,  of  an  English  correspondent.  —From  the  Diario  Yucateco. 


i  r 


The  Marconigram. 

In  this  caricature  the  author  is  depicted  in  the 
act  of  sending  a  lurid  message  to  the  Times. 
His  arrows  are  devoted  respectively  to  cells, 
tortures,  black  balls,  hospital,  lack  of  firemen, 
insects,  very  many  insects,  absence  of  cat-o'-nine- 
tails, therefore  more  advanced  conditions  than  in 
England,  floggings,  locusts. — From  the  Diario 
Yucateco, 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


35 


contracts  and  prevented  messages  from  being  sent 
for  two  days  on  the  wire  of  the  Associated  Press,  I 
did  not  hear  of  any  interference  with  the  American 
cable  company.  I  sent  a  telegram,  devoted  chiefly 
to  Chihuahua  and  containing  information  which  the 
local  papers  had  not  been  allowed  to  publish.  They 
would  have  been  forced  by  the  authorities  to  give 
their  correspondents'  names.  In  five  hours  I  was 
told  that  the  authorities  up  in  the  capital  declined 
to  let  my  telegram  go  through.1  This  was  a  dis- 
concerting business,  and  the  message  could  not  go 
until  a  Ward  Line  vessel — s.s.  '  Esperanza  ' — stopped 
outside  Progreso  on  the  second  day.  The  Revolution 
was  not  standing  still,  and  with  my  telegram  in- 
creased and  modified  I  went  out  from  the  harbourless 
Progreso  in  a  fishing  boat.  (I  much  regret  I  cannot 
here  describe  that  voyage  over  perilous  green  rollers, 
while  the  captain  plied  his  amiable  Maya  man  with 
economic  questions  as  to  practices  prevailing  in  the 
vessels  of  Quintana  Roo.)  The  wireless  operator 
chose  the  moment  of  my  climbing  up  the  side  of  the 
'  Esperanza  '  (which  means  '  hope  ')  to  cast  off  in  a 
little  steamer  from  the  other  side,  because  he  wanted 
to  see  Merida,  and  so  he  went,  not  asking  leave  of 
anyone.  I  wish  that  he  had  been  as  independent  in 
transmitting  my  dispatch,  for  on  the  next  day  I  was 
told  a  story  of  a  broken  motor,  and  the  agent  of  the 
Ward  Line  seemed  to  place  no  limit  on  my  simple 
faith.  The  British  captain  of  a  trading  vessel  took 
my  message  over  to  Mobile.  The  British  Consul  sent 
my  envelope  for  Washington  inside  an  envelope  of 
his  to  some  New  England  town — three  hundred  citi- 

1  'Telegraphing,'  said  Don  Porfirio  in  the  Creelman  interview, 
when  he  looked  back  upon  the  savage  era  which  preceded  him, 
1  telegraphing  was  a  difficult  thing  in  those  days.' 


36       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


zens  of  Merida  (including  foreign  business  people  and 
the  Chief  of  Telegraphs)  had  recently  had  all  their 
letters  opened  at  the  magistrate's1 — and  my  belated 
telegram  went  on  the  next  boat  to  Havana.2  He 
whose  motor  had  been  in  the  best  of  health  conversed 
about  it  with  a  friend  of  mine,  as  they  were  also  heading 
for  Havana.  The  Marconi  operator  of  another  Ward 
Line  vessel  told  me,  four  or  five  weeks  later,  that  the 
captain  had  instructed  him  to  send  no  message 
dealing  with  the  politics  of  Mexico  nor  anything  in 
cypher.  It  was  necessary  for  the  Ward  Line — we 
need  not  discuss  the  reasons — to  be  on  the  best  of 

1  When  the  Revolution  was  triumphant,  one  Manterola,  postmaster 
of  the  Federal  District,  addressed  a  copious  letter  to  the  Press  upon 
the  subject  of  his  honesty,  the  sole  possession  which  he  had  to  leave, 
he  said,  to  his  descendants.  Letters  had  been  seized,  but  that  was  in 
accordance  with  the  law ;  he  stigmatised  as  very  foolish,  very  lazy 
good-for-nothings,  his  unintellectual  subordinates. 

2  Thus  my  message  went  in  triplicate  to  Washington,  en  route  for 
England.  '  He  gave  it  to  a  mariner,'  said  Mr.  Justice  Darling  con- 
temptuously, '  and  no  doubt  some  day  it  will  turn  up  in  a  bottle. ' 
(Loud  laughter.)  'Again  they  guffawed,'  says  'Vanity  Fair,'  'and 
again  Mr.  Baerlein  (who  was  the  plaintiff)  did  his  duty.  He  laughed. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Baerlein  is  a  great  traveller.  He  has  had  his  grit  tried  in  odd 
corners  of  the  world.  .  .  .  Platitudes  are  always  untrue.  The  latest 
to  be  discredited  is  the  one  which  asserts  the  rare  adventurousness  of 
the  life  led  outside  the  dead  spots  which  we  tame  folk  call  cities.  Never 
will  he  forget  the  peril  to  be  encountered  in  the  mother  of  cities.' 
During  a  case  against  the  editor  of  '  The  Times  '  '  History  of  the  South 
African  War,'  Mr.  Justice  Phillimore,  on  taking  his  seat,  said  that 
'  on  reflection  he  thought  that  he  ought  to  have  checked  laughter  that 
was  heard  in  the  Court  yesterday.  There  must  be  no  laughter  to-day ' 
(January  27,  1911).  I  hope  I  am  not  doing  Mr.  Justice  Darling  an 
injustice,  but  I  have  searched  in  vain  through  the  reports  for  anything 
resembling  this.  When  I  have  been  present  in  his  Court  he  has  been 
very  willing  to  repeat,  with  an  uplifted  eyebrow,  a  facetious  or  a 
jocular  remark  which  Counsel  has  not  heard.  '  What  the  dickens  are 
you  two  fellows  up  to  ? '  asks  a  Senior  Counsel  in  1  Punch  '  (February  5, 
1913).  '  We're  in  old  Dearie's  Court  to-day,'  says  one  of  the  Juniors. 
'  Brilliant  idea  to  wear  masks  and  save  facial  strain. '  .  .  .  Of  course 
it  will  be  said  that  if  I  criticise  this  Judge  I  am  no  sportsman.  Judges, 
save  the  very  best,  are  not  machines,  the  unimpassioned  representatives 
of  Justice,  and  if  you  should  come  before  a  man  who  has  the  general 
reputation  of  being  a  defendant's  judge,  it  might  have  been  your  for- 
tune to  have  Mr.  Justice  Grantham,  who  was  looked  on  as  inclined 
to  take  the  plaintiff's  view.  It  was  your  luck  to  be  in  Darling's 
Court ;  abide  by  that.    When  Mr.  Justice  Grantham  died,  after  all 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


37 


terms  with  Don  Porfirio's  Government.  But  this 
brave  operator  said  that  I  could  telegraph  all  night ; 
he  would  defy  the  captain. 

The  '  Diario  Yucateco '  was  exasperated ;  I 
remained  in  Yucatan.  And  Don  Ricardo  printed  more 
absurdities,  endeavouring  in  this  way  to  be  popular 
and  expedite  my  going.  But  I  had  by  this  time 
gathered  a  good  quantity  of  information  on  the  life 
the  natives  lived.  It  seemed  to  me  that  in  a  property 
of  Don  Ricardo' s  at  Acanceh  their  position  was 
unenviable,  since  the  agent  of  the  farm  and  the  jefe 
politico  was  one  and  the  same  person  ;  when  Aristegui 
was  superseded  this  man  was  immediately  removed 
from  office.  And  it  seemed  to  me  that  Dr.  le  Plongeon, 

the  efforts  to  remove  him  from  the  Bench  had  been  in  vain,  the  papers 
said  that  he  had  been  our  worst  Judge.  So  there  was  a  vacancy. 
And  if  you  advocate  that  Mr.  Justice  Darling  be  removed,  you  have 
but  slender  chances  of  success.  His  jocularity  may  be  deplorable, 
but  he  is  not  financially  corrupt,  and  surely  it  is  difficult  to  show  that 
by  his  jokes  he  injures  anyone.  We  are  not  in  Central  America, 
where  judges,  taking  their  departure,  cheerfully  agree  that  they  have 
not  been  quite  impeccable.  '  While  our  judges,'  says  a  writer  in  the 
'  Gentlewoman,'  'are  free  from  those  venal  practices  which  have  brought 
the  Bench  of  other  countries  into  disrepute,  some  of  them  are  guilty 
of  other  faults  which  sadly  retard  the  course  of  justice,  and  detract 
considerably  from  the  dignity  of  the  law.  I  refer  more  particularly 
to  the  habit  which  a  few  of  the  judges  have  contracted  of  making  a 
joke  (sometimes  funny,  sometimes  feeble)  on  every  possible  occasion. 
.  .  .  It  is  as  seductive  as  the  drug  habit — the  more  it  is  indulged  in , 
the  greater  is  the  desire  for  it — and  the  judge  in  question  is  a  hopeless 
Joe  Miller. '  This  writer  complains  chiefly  of  the  scandalous  waste  of 
most  expensive  time.  But  I  suggest  that  if  the  legal  improprieties 
of  England,  wholly  different  as  they  are  in  kind,  work  more  subtly 
than  do  those  of  Nicaragua,  then  by  so  much  is  our  greater  civilisation 
a  greater  evil.  I  am  told  that  I  must  refrain  from  wondering  (in 
print)  as  to  what  Dante  would  have  done  with  such  a  judge.  But 
Max  Beerbohm  in  his  latest  series  of  caricatures  has  one  of  which 
Sir  Claude  Phillips  says  that :  '  Naughty,  teasing  Puck  suddenly 
becomes  a  Juvenal,  pitiless  in  satire,  in  the  caricature  On  Circuit, 
which  delineates  Mr.  Justice  Darling  in  the  act  of  handing  the  Black 
Cap  to  his  marshal,  with  the  instruction,  "  Oh,  and  get  some  bells  sewn 
on  this,  will  you ? "'  Meredith  hoped  to  die  with  a  racy  French  story 
on  his  lip,  and  perhaps  the  majority  of  those  who  are  condemned  to 
death  do  not  deserve  anything  better  than  one  of  this  judge's  jokes. 
The  caricature,  says  the  '  Nation,'  '  is  an  example  of  downright, 
public-spirited  and  honest  personal  satire.' 


38       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


the  French  savant,  would  have  been  dismayed  to  hear 
about  a  property  of  Don  Ricardo's  called  Ebnakan, 
for  the  doctor  had  located  Eden  in  this  hot  peninsula, 
he  found  in  Yucatan  the  grave  of  Abel  and  the 
shrivelled  heart  of  the  poor  victim  and  the  knife  used 
in  the  deadly  conflict.  At  Ebnakan  a  state  of  things 
existed  which  it  is  impracticable  to  repeat ;  much 
worse  it  was  than  in  the  army,  where  an  officer  would 
sometimes  lock  the  door  upon  himself  and  a  stripped 
soldier,  whom  he  then  would  flog  and  hold  in  his  left 
hand  a  pistol  to  be  used  at  an  emergency.  A  pitiable 
— and  I  proved  it  a  veracious — document  came  into 
my  possession,  written  by  a  carpenter  who  had  been 
temporarily  at  Ebnakan.  If  I  could  but  reproduce  the 
simple,  ungrammatical,  detailed  account  of  horrors  ! 

Don  Ricardo,  at  a  cost  of  sixty  dollars  gold, 
dispatched  a  prepaid  cable  to  Messrs.  J.  Henry 
Schroder  and  another,  asking  :  '  Is  Henry  Baerlein 
truly  your  correspondent  ? '  to  '  The  Times.'  In  large 
black  letters  in  the  middle  of  the  front  page  of  his 
journal  he  inserted  the  replies  in  English  and  exult  - 
ingly  appended  a  translation  and  his  comments.  The 
first  answer  said  that  I  was  not  connected  in  any  way 
with  '  The  Times,'  except  as  an  occasional  contributor.1 

1  '  Por  consiguente,'  said  the  '  Diario  Yucateco,' '  el  Mister  no  es  cor- 
responsal  del  '*  Times,"  como  se  habia  creido,  sino  un  simple  individuo, 
que  por  su  cuenta  y  riesgo  esta  recogiendo  informaciones  que  podra 
6  no  comunicar  a  aquel  periodico,  del  que  es  simple  contribuyente  de 
ocasion,  como  cualquier  hijo  de  vecino.'  'Consequently  he  is  not 
"  The  Times' "  correspondent,  as  we  were  led  to  believe,  but  a  simple 
individual  who  on  his  own  account  and  at  his  own  risk  is  gathering 
data  which  he  may  or  may  not  communicate  to  that  paper,  of  which 
he  is  merely  an  occasional  correspondent,  as  any  neighbour's  son.' 
And  it  uttered  a  grave  warning  to  its  countrymen  :  '  Conviene,  pues, 
que  salgan  del  error  quienes  habian  considerado  al  susodicho  como 
todo  un  corresponsal  del  gran  periodico. '  '  Therefore,  let  those  who 
considered  him  to  be  fully  a  correspondent  of  the  great  paper  no 
longer  harbour  that  delusion. '  4  We  are  almost  entirely  without 
authentic  news  here,'  Mr.  Willert  had  written.  '  Anything  you  can 
get  through  will  be  extremely  valuable.' 


— From  the  Diario  Yucateco. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


39 


Messrs.  Schroder,  in  obtaining  this  information  from 
'  The  Times  '  office,  had  told  them  that  it  was  to  be 
regarded  as  confidential ;  but  the  second  answer, 
which  after  four  days'  consideration  was  sent  by  the 
Foreign  Department  of  6  The  Times,'  said  merely  : 
c  Not  member  "  Times  "  staff,  only  authorised  submit 
articles.'  Of  this  the  first  half  was  as  accurate  as 
possible  and  I  believe  it  will  remain  so  ;  but  seeing 
that  Mr.  D.  Disraeli  Braham,  the  sender,  acknow- 
ledged in  cross-examination  that  he  knew  the  second 
part  of  his  answer  might  be  dangerous1  for  me,  he 
would  have  been  acting  more  thoughtfully,  I  think, 
if  he  had  either  consulted  me  before  replying  or  else 
added  to  his  cable  the  words  4  not  to  be  published.' 
(This  part  of  his  cross-examination  happens  to  be 
omitted  from  '  The  Times  '  report  of  the  case.)  He 
should,  I  suggest,  have  remembered  that  when  the 
authorities  of  a  foreign  country  are  exasperated 
against  a  correspondent  of  '  The  Times  '  it  may  be 
simply  owing  to  the  latter' s  laudable  zeal,  and  I  do 
not  doubt  that  this  is  why  he  was  himself  expelled 
from  Russia.  This  cable  caused  me  to  bring  an  action 
for  libel,  but  Mr.  Justice  Darling  actually  held  that 
when  the  Mexican  newspaper  asked  if  I  was  4  truly 
your  correspondent '  they  meant  4  your  own  corre- 
spondent,' that  is  to  say  the  resident  correspondent, 
and  if  they  had  been  told  I  was  the  4  special  corre- 
spondent '  they  would  not  have  understood  the  phrase ! 
He  did  not  look  as  if  he  expected  anyone  to  laugh 
when  he  put  forward  this  opinion.  .  .  .  And,  with 
his  rare  humour,  he  seized  one  of  my  weapons  with 

1  Everyone  in  Court,  so  far  as  I  could  ascertain,  thought  this  a 
very  damaging  admission  on  the  part  of  the  witness,  as  surely  it  is. 
But  not  so  Mr.  Justice  Darling.  He  gazed  in  his  most  frigid  manner 
from  the  top  of  his  two  beautiful,  white,  nervous  hands  and  never 
alluded  to  the  admission  in  his  summing-up. 


40       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


which  to  wound  me.  6  The  Times  '  had  always  spoken 
of  me  in  their  own  columns  as  its  'special  corre- 
spondent,' and  why,  he  asked  rather  testily,  why 
was  I  not  satisfied  with  that  ?  A  judge,  it  is  held 
[Law  Reports,  14  Q.B.D.  p.  108,  Smith  v.  Dark],  does 
not  misdirect  the  jury  if  he  gives  expression  to  his 
opinion  and  not  even,  I  presume,  if  it  causes  him  to 
make  heavier  demands  upon  the  plaintiff  than  did 
the  defendant's  counsel.  But  although  one  may 
demand  of  Yucatecans  that  they  read  4  The  Times ' 
and  read  it  carefully — whether  they  will  do  so  is  a 
matter  of  opinion. 

Mr.  Moberly  Bell's  successor  (a  Mr.  Nicholson,  a 
'  Harms  worth  '  man)  told  me  on  my  return  to  England 
that  they  had  no  idea  that  they  were  causing  me 
unpleasantness,  and  also  there  was  an  impression  in 
the  office  that  I  called  myself  in  Yucatan  the  corre- 
spondent of  '  The  Times.'  Yet  when  I  was  asked  to 
do  that  article  about  the  treatment  of  the  Indians  it 
had  not  been  mentioned  that  I  might  secure  facilities 
and  find  more  open  doors  by  posing  as  the  corre- 
spondent of  the  'Licensed  Victuallers'  Gazette.'  I 
think  they  might  have  been  less  ready  to  play  into 
Don  Ricardo's  hands.  The  paragraphs  he  now  began 
to  print  were  splendidly  sarcastic,  or  they  virtuously 
held  me  up  to  scorn  as  one  who  was  exposed,  the 
merest  writer  who  was  getting  access  into  places  as  a 
correspondent  of  4  The  Times  '  and  who  occasionally 
would  perhaps  send  part  of  what  he  culled  to  London, 
seeing  that  he  was  permitted  to  submit.  These 
paragraphs  I  subsequently  showed  to  Mr.  Nicholson, 
who  scratched  his  head,  observing  he  had  no  idea,  etc. 
4  "  The  Times  "  is  very  grateful  for  all  the  trouble 
you  have  taken,'  so  Mr.  Willert  wrote  me  in  December 
from  Washington.  But  now  they  took  the  opportunity 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


41 


to  ask  me  to  refrain  from  corresponding, 1  and  as  day 
by  day  e  The  Times  '  came  out  to  Mexico  with  not  a 
word  about  the  Revolution  very  ugly  things  were  said. 
I  begged  them,  if  they  still  were  interested  in  the 
country,  to  dispatch  another  correspondent,  as  the 
Revolution  would  increase.  6  Nobody  here  knows 
anything  about  the  situation,'  so  Mr.  Willert  had 
written  me  from  Washington,  and  apparently  in 
London  they  did  not  want  to  know,  because  a  long 
cable  which  by  three  routes  I  sent  through  Mr. 
Willert  was  ignored.  4  The  only  thing  that  really 
matters,'  Mr.  Willert  wrote  me,  '  is  for  them  to  get 
the  news  in  London.'  And  this  ignoring  the  fate  of 
several  articles  I  had  already  sent  with  reference  to 
the  Revolution.  Correspondents  have  ere  now  been 
ruffled  if  a  Government  takes  steps  to  silence 
them — 'To  diminish  the  effect  of  the  triumph  of 
the  Revolution  in  the  people's  mind,'  said  Mr. 
James  R.  Garfield,  an  American  ex-Minister  of  the 
Interior  who  lately  had  been  travelling  in  Mexico, 
4  the  Government,'  he  said,  4  is  concealing  the  news,' 
and  in  order  that  from  any  lurking  resentment  and 
from  my  too  brief  acquaintance  with  the  country  I 
might  not  be  led  to  misinterpret  what  I  saw  and 
what  I  foresaw,  I  secured  the  very  kind  and  highly 
competent  revision  of  the  British  Minister.  But  Lon- 

1  The  explanation  which  they  gave  before  Mr.  Justice  Darling  was 
that  they  felt  uneasy  about  me.  I  had  obtained  the  usual  free  passes 
on  the  Mexican  Railways,  and  although  they  knew  all  about  this  in 
November  and  said  no  word — indeed,  how  could  they,  since  I  was 
also  writing  for  other  papers  ? — they  explain  that  in  February  it  was 
weighing  on  their  mind  and  made  them  quite  uneasy  as  to  what  I 
might  be  doing.  After  my  abrupt  dismissal,  I  sent  a  letter  by  three 
different  routes  to  Mr.  Willert,  asking  him  to  forward  it  to  London. 
I  pointed  out  not  only  the  embarrassing  but  the  perilous  position  in 
which  they  had  placed  me,  and  I  said  that  as  the  Revolution  would 
succeed  they  ought  to  send  out  someone  else  to  Mexico.  But  from 
their  evidence  at  the  trial  it  appeared  that  they  never  had  this  letter. 


42       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


don  would  not  print.  '  More  hopeful  outlook,'  they 
announced  on  12th  March,  because  a  New  York 
correspondent  told  them  that  the  Mexican  insurgents, 
save  the  mere  marauders,  would  1  lay  down  their 
arms,  accept  the  amnesty  and  renew  their  allegiance.' 
But  on  the  19th  of  April  they  were  bound  to  say,  as 
said  the  6  New  York  Times,'  that 6  no  peace  is  possible 
till  Diaz  retires.'  Let  us  now  go  back  a  little.  On 
tne  12th  March  a  telegram  from  Mr.  Willert  had 
these  words  :  '  The  state  of  affairs  is  conceded  to  be 
grave,  but  how  grave  none  pretends  to  know.  Rigor- 
ous censorship,  the  guerilla  nature  of  the  warfare, 
official  reticence,  ignorance  of  the  details  and  person- 
alities1 of  Mexican  politics  all  militate  against 
accuracy.'  It  seemed  as  if  '  The  Times  ' — 6  one  of  his 
[General  Diaz']  oldest  and  firmest  friends  in  the 
foreign  Press  '  (I  quote  from  4  Current  Literature,' 
New  York,  April,  1911) — was  averse  from  publishing 
unpalatable  truth.  '  Whatever  the  grievances  and 
ambitions  of  the  opponents  of  the  Diaz  Administra- 
tion, their  activities,'  said  4  The  Times  '  on  the  14th 
March,  'are  regrettable  inasmuch  as  they  threaten 
the  remarkably  rising  prosperity  of  the  country's 
trade  and  industries,  and  it  is  therefore  to  be  hoped 
that  the  United  States  Government's  present  demon- 
stration or  manoeuvres  at  Galveston  and  on  the  Texas 
border  will  be  accepted  by  the  rebels  as  an  indication 
that  their  proceedings  are  viewed  with  disfavour  by 
Mexico's  best  customer.'  So  it  would  seem  that  in 
these  days  the  grievances  and  ambitions  of  a  people 

1  This  was  no  exaggeration  on  Mr.  Willert's  part.  Indeed  he  was 
imperfectly  acquainted  with  the  Mexican  Ambassador  at  Washington 
itself,  for  on  March  27  there  was  a  cable  saying  that  Senor  de  la 
Barra  belonged  to  an  old  and  wealthy  family.  The  facts  are  that  he 
is  the  son  of  a  foreigner,  a  Chilian,  who  conceived  the  good  idea  of 
taking  horses  up  to  San  Francisco  at  the  time  of  the  great  boom. 
On  the  way  his  boat  was  wrecked,  and  that  is  how  he  came  to  Mexico. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


43 


are  not  even  worth  considering.  And  if  the  opponents 
of  the  Diaz  Administration  were,  as  '  The  Times  '  has 
since  said,  ninety  per  cent  of  the  inhabitants,  or  if 
they  were  far  fewer  it  is  lamentable  that  these  words 
should  have  been  written.  '  It  is  interesting,'  they 
continue,  '  to  observe  that  the  Ministry  of  Finance 
describes  the  movement  as  the  work  of  certain  restless 
spirits  without  prestige  and  without  any  support 
in  public  opinion  and  of  a  purely  local  character.' 
No  doubt  if  a  newspaper  has  to  close  the  ordinary 
channel  of  information  it  is  driven  to  collect  the  news 
where  best  it  may.  But  this  extraordinary  channel 
was,  to  put  it  courteously,  choked  with  lilies.  '  Sin 
novedad '  (nothing  new)  the  Under  -  Secretary  of 
Finance  had  telegraphed  to  Limantour  in  Paris,  when 
the  Revolution  was  in  full  swing  (cf .  4  The  Times '  of 
24th  November,  1910)  and  if  that  is  how  he  kept  his 

chief  informed  !   They  had  indeed  acknowledged 

it  would  be  much  better  for  the  prestige  of  Porfirio 
Diaz  both  in  Europe  and  America  if  those  about  him 
could  resist  the  inclination  to  indulge  in  rhetoric  about 
the  country's  freedom.  '  It  would  be  idle  to  deny,' 
they  said,  '  that  the  republic  is  Diaz  and  Diaz  an 
autocrat.'  But  this  was  hardly  news.  Men  looked  at 
one  another1  and  they  marvelled  and  they  spoke  of 
the  insidious  Mexican  diplomacy  and  of  capitalists  in 
Mexico  and  of  investors  who  in  London  might  be 
nibbling. 

Then  I  was  pursued  by  secret-service  men,  both 
competent  and  foolish  ones,  but  Merida  contained 

1  It  is  regrettable,  I  think,  that  in  its  many  interesting  and  volumi- 
nous Supplements  on  Russia,  Japan,  Ireland  or  any  other  country, 
'  The  Times '  should  fill  up  a  certain  portion  with  advertisements  ; 
because  with  the  most  thorough  and  sincere  desire  to  speak  the 
whole  truth,  there  will  be  people  always  whose  untutored  minds 
believe  that  in  the  circumstances  it  is  not  so  easy.  There  is  a  South 
American  Supplement  which  appears  monthly  and  includes  Mexico. 


44       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


about  700  (for  a  population  of  50,000),  so  that  all  of 
them  could  not  be  brilliant.  (For  one's  English 
conversation  there  was  usually  a  Chinaman.)  They 
received  from  thirty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  pesos  a 
month,  while  others — the  most  dangerous — were  paid 
by  piecework.  Now  and  then  I  took  a  photograph  : 
the  mestizo  (half-breed)  standing  by  the  bench  is 
probably  a  thirty-peso  man,  but  in  the  other  view 
we  have  a  celebrated  villain,  who  was  glad  to  let  me 
photograph  his  stick.  Antonio  Carillo  started  his 
career  by  hunting  runaways  from  haciendas,  and  at 
Ticul  he  attempted  to  assassinate  with  bombs.  His 
talent,  therefore,  was  not  to  be  wasted  in  a  little 
town,  they  summoned  him  to  Merida,  equipped  him 
with  a  uniform  and  gave  him  captain's  rank,  because 
he  was  a  dashing  fellow.  He  was  posted  at  the  Santa 
Ana  police-station.  Later  on  he  was  discharged  for 
having  made  it  an  assembling  place  for  women  and 
for  wealthy  youths,  whom  he  exploited  with  a  game 
of  so-called  chance.  But  he  retains  the  privilege  of 
keeping  an  immoral  house  which  does  not  pay  the 
legal  tax,  his  fame  as  '  bravo  '  still  abides  with  him, 
he  is  respected  and  will  do  whatever  the  authorities 
suggest,  including  murder.  Yet,  after  all,  these 
biographical  particulars  prove  little  as  to  his  acumen 
in  the  secret  service.  Merida  the  beautiful  was 
riddled  with  this  kind  of  gentry — la  terre  paraissait 
orgueilleuse  de  porter  tant  de  braves  ! — even  private 
persons  having  retinues  of  silent  feet,  to  know  what 
happens  and  ingratiate  themselves,  maybe,  with  the 
authorities.  Thus  Avelino  Montes,  Olegario's  son-in- 
law  and  partner,  paid  three  thousand  pesos  monthly 
for  his  private  service ;  and  when  Delio  Moreno 
Canton,  the  candidate  for  Governmental  honours, 
lay  concealed,  it  was  a  Montes  man  who  ran  him  down, 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


45 


and  Montes  had  the  glory  of  informing  Aristegui. 
.  .  .  The  manager  of  my  hotel,  a  Frenchman,  urged 
me  to  shake  off  the  dust  of  Yucatan  ;  he  could  not 
even  guarantee  that  no  untoward  item  would  be 
lurking  somewhere  in  a  dish  below  his  roof.  4  The 
Times  '  had  publicly  disowned  me,  and  I  was  no  more 
protected  than  the  journalist  Abelardo  Ancona,  who 
was  searched  on  entering  the  gaol,  was  interviewed 
from  midnight  until  two  o'clock  by  Olegario  and  at 
three  o'clock  he  died — a  shot  resounded,  and,  although 
the  explanation  which  they  gave  was  suicide,  a  certain 
Villamil  of  the  police,  a  dreadful  person,  was  promoted 
and  promoted.  Those  who  took  the  management  of 
these  affairs  were  very  thorough.  When  Fernando 
Sanchez,  President  of  a  committee  of  the  workmen, 
occupied  himself  with  politics  he  found  the  prison  so 
unhealthy  that  he  died  the  second  day.  The  Govern- 
ment, invited  to  deliver  up  his  body  to  impartial 
doctors,  did  not  wish  to  cast  aspersions  on  the 
Government's  practitioners  and  Dr.  Palomeque,  the 
devoted  servant  of  Don  Olegario,  was  placed  in  charge. 
The  whole  internal  system,  which  had  turned  a 
blackish  red,  he  excavated  and  returned  the  shell  to 
poor  Fernando' s  relatives,  informing  them — to  their 
astonishment — that  death  had  taken  place  through 
heart  disease.  The  relations  argued  that  he  never  was 
afflicted  by  this  malady,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  a 
fact  that  the  internal  organs  will  assume  this  colour 
if  the  action  of  the  heart  be  stopped,  say  with  potas- 
sium cyanide.  But  as  the  Frenchman's  fears  were 
groundless  and  I  have  survived  there  is  no  reason  why 
I  should  approximate  myself  to  Sanchez  or  Ancona. 
Yet  I  think  that  when  we  are  inflated  with  the  surfeit 
of  our  knowledge  we  should  not  forget  that  for  a  long 
time  we  were  in  another  and  maybe  more  blessed 


46       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


state  ;  and  I  admit  that  for  the  student  of  psychology 
it  is  delicious  if  you  feel  a  qualm  or  two  about  your 
boon-companion. 

In  the  haciendas  and  the  towns,  with  natives  so 
addicted  to  the  Church,  it  is  a  potent  influence  for 
good  or  evil  which  the  Church  possesses.  Look  you 
down,  if  so  it  pleases  you,  upon  the  natives  who  can 
apprehend  so  little  of  the  Christian  dogma — what  the 
Tarahumares  have,  for  instance,  in  north-western 
Mexico  reposes  chiefly  in  the  words  Senor  San  Jose 
and  Maria  Santissima  ;  for  their  Father  Sun  they 
have  adopted  the  words  Tata  Dios  (Father  God)  who 
is  husband  of  the  Mother  Moon  (the  Virgin  Mary) — 
but  the  missionary  priests  were  useful  and  heroic  in 
so  many  ways,  their  flock  had  such  a  healthy  joy  in 
its  religion — even  now  they  dance  in  places  round  the 
Christian  emblems  in  a  church  at  midnight  with  the 
zeal  of  bygone  generations  dancing  round  the  bygone 
gods  and  for  the  selfsame  purpose :  to  acquire 
material  benefits  and  health.  Contrast  that  picture 
with  the  Yucatecan  church  of  Tecoh,  which  is  often 
empty,  since  the  people  have  refused  to  worship  under 
a  lascivious  old  man.  That  he  should  lead  a  patriar- 
chal life,  with  children  and  with  children's  children 
all  about  him,  would  not  so  much  scandalise1  a  people 
which  is  used  to  seeing  priests  come  over  with  their 
mistresses  from  Spain  ;  but  he  does  not  observe  a 
precept  which  was  hanging  until  recently  in  a  Cam- 
peche  Church — the  Bishop  took  it  down  because  of 
the  attention  it  attracted  from  the  tourists — '  While 

1  The  Danish  peasants,  we  are  told  by  Von  Raumer  ('Geschichte 
der  Hohenstauffen,'  Pt.  VI,  page  180),  made  themselves  the  cham- 
pions of  the  humble  priests  against  the  bishops  when,  in  the  year 
1190,  it  was  mooted  as  to  whether  concubines  should  be  dispersed.  If 
one  allowed  the  priests  to  have  their  consorts,  then,  the  peasants 
argued,  they  would  be  less  anxious  to  abuse  the  wives  and  daughters 
of  the  peasantry. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


47 


in  the  confessional,'  it  said,  4  the  priest  shall  not 
solicit  either  sex.'  The  priest  of  Tecoh  has  the 
ministration  of  some  haciendas  ;  for  example,  at  the 
one  called  Pixyah,  when  a  girl  would  not  confess  before 
her  marriage,  they  discovered  why  the  priest  excited 
in  her  such  repugnance.  He  remains  because  he  speaks 
the  Maya  language ;  if  the  careworn  Austrian 
Archbishop  could  induce  more  estimable  Yucatecans 
to  enroll  themselves  in  this  profession  he  would  clear 
the  whole  Augean  stable.1  As  it  is  he  cannot  do 
without  the  Spanish  importations — in  his  palace 
there  is  only  one  (a  secretary)  who  is  not  from  Spain — 
and  these  are  sometimes  moral,  seldom  have  they  any 
application,  and  the  Maya  language  with  its  very 
limited  vocabulary  is  not  often  mastered.  In  the 
haciendas  if  there  is  a  priest  he  is  too  frequently  an 
agent  of  the  hacendado,  preaching  as  his  mouthpiece 
on  a  special  point  of  discipline  and  telling  him  what 
he  has  learned  in  the  confessional.  So  they  can 
scarcely  be  ignored  when  you  are  dealing  with  the 
Indian's  life.  As  an  example  they  are  wretched  : 
Father  Mir  of  Tizimin  believes,  like  certain  Indians 
in  some  other  parts  of  the  Republic,  that  one  should 
not  tamely  go  into  a  shop  and  buy  religious  candles. 
The  devoted  Indian  climbs  into  the  tree-tops  to  collect 
what  has  been  left  there  by  the  wild  bees  ;  sometimes 
for  a  lump  not  worth  two  pennies  he  will  hew  a  cedar 
down  which  is  worth  twenty  pesos.  Father  Mir 
blows  out  the  lighted  candles  at  the  earliest 
opportunity,  arranges  them  and  sells  them  quickly 
to  another  devotee.  The  corner  which  he  makes  in 
candles,  so  that  in  the  whole  of  Tizimin  there  is  no 

*  The  instances  have  been  restricted  to  as  small  a  number  as  appear 
to  justify  this  accusation.  'From  Mexico  southwards,'  says  a  writer 
in  'Blackwood's  Magazine'  (November,  1911),  'the  disorders  of  the 
clergy,  secular  or  regular,  are  notorious.' 


48       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


other  salesman,  has  been  celebrated  in  a  previous 
book  on  Yucatan.  Him  and  the  priest  of  Tecoh  I 
have  met,  and  they  are  not  inspiring  spectacles.  The 
custom  with  this  Mir  is  to  bequeath  his  mistresses 
to  the  mestizo  sacristans.  A  girl,  whose  mother  was 
a  member  of  the  sisterhood  of  Saint  Vincent  of  Paul, 
did  not  wish  to  marry  one  Antonio  Puig,  Mir's  nephew 
and  chief  sacristan  ;  she  was  obliged  to  do  so  and  to 
live  in  Mir's  great  house,  which  used  to  be  a  convent. 
But  one  night  Antonio,  after  a  terrific  scene,  removed 
his  wife.  A  girl,  Luisa  Sosa,  also  was  an  inmate  of  the 
convent,  and  her  husband,  a  good  mason  but  a 
worthless  man,  allowed  himself  to  be  placated  with 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pesos,  after  he  had  come  back 
unexpectedly  and  witnessed  his  dishonour.  Tizimin 
has  now  become  quite  anti- Catholic,  since  they  have 
had  this  Mir  for  eighteen  years,  and  his  parishioners 
from  time  to  time  bombard  him  with  French  breakfast- 
rolls.  But  both  the  wealthy  and  the  poor  among  them 
are  continuously  urged  by  thirty-two  most  earnest 
ladies  of  the  sisterhood  to  give  a  contribution  towards 
the  upkeep  of — a  saint  !  In  Valladolid  was  a  priest, 
by  name  Castillo,  who  raised  up  two  families,  the 
mothers  being  sisters  ;  but  they  quarrelled.  And  a 
gentleman  (marked  X),  with  whom  I  had  been  talking 
when  I  photographed  the  secret-service  man,  informed 
me  how  the  priest  of  Tixkokob,  by  name  Ancona,  had 
declined  to  let  him  marry  a  most  lovely  girl,  the  grand- 
child of  Ancona' s  sister.  Though  the  girl  was  just 
as  anxious  to  be  married  they  were  kept  apart,  and  it 
was  only  by  the  kindness  of  old  General  Canton,  the 
Governor,  that  the  man  was  ultimately  sent  to 
Tixkokob  as  stationmaster,  and  about  this  time  the 
girl — whose  letters  had  been  intercepted — had  a  son. 
Ancona  was  then  sixty-seven  years  of  age  ;  he  is  now 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


49 


eighty-nine.  She  ran  away,  fell  into  some  financial 
difficulties,  and  the  priest  '  forgetting  and  forgiving 
all  that  she  had  done  '  presented  her  with  4000  pesos 
and  received  her  back  into  his  house.  Varela,  priest 
of  Baca,  vaunts  the  beauty  of  the  local  maidens,  and 
if  you  will  come  at  fair-time  he  will  see  that  you  are 
entertained.  The  doctor  of  a  rich  man  called  Mez- 
quita,  who  had  lately  died  at  Izamal,  told  how  the 
priest  would  not  communicate  him  on  his  death-bed 
if  he  did  not  pay  the  Church  a  sum  of  3500 
pesos  (one  centavo  for  each  25  lbs. — an  arroba — of 
hemp).  Mezquita  always  had  refused  to  pay  the 
Church's  impositions  ;  so  they  bargained  now,  and 
finally  100  pesos  were  accepted.  But  the  Church  is  not 
endowed,  and  if  you  want  her  services  it  seems  to  me 
that  one  centavo  per  arroba  is  no  very  grievous  tax. 
There  is  this  much  excuse  for  the  commercial  spirit 
in  the  priests  of  Yucatan — their  congregations  never 
would  support  them.  8  In  a  town  towards  Campeche, 
twenty-seven  leagues  from  here,'  an  English-speaking 
hacendado  said,  8  the  priest  leaves  out  of  the  convent 
every  Sunday  morning  with  a  game-cock,  going  to 
fight  in  the  open  parade.  After  he  goes  into  any  rum 
shop  that  is  near  and  has  his  drink  equal  to  anyone. 
He  says  he  is  only  a  priest  when  he  is  in  the  church  ; 
outside  he  is  like  any  other  man.'  Mendoza,  priest  of 
Tizimin,  had  four  children  ;  Aguilar,  who  succeeded 
him,  misled  the  fourteen-year-old  daughter  of  his 
cousin,  living  with  her  very  openly  ;  Ortiz,  a  priest  in 
Merida  Cathedral,  had  two  children  by  a  cousin,  but 
this  happened  when  he  was  a  village  priest.  The 
children  and  the  mother  lived  with  Don  Eusebio 
Escalante  and  the  priest  made  monthly  payments. 
Now,  in  virtue  of  his  eminent  position,  he  has  totally 
abandoned  them.   And  this  is  only  Yucatan  we  have 

E 


50       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


considered,  for  I  will  not  speak  of  what  I  do  not  know. 
But  in  two  other  States,  far  distant  from  each  other, 
when  the  Bishop  and  the  priest  go  travelling  round  the 
villages  a  handsome  girl  is  put  aside  for  each  of  them  ; 
she  is  much  better  dressed  than  she  has  ever  been 
and  she  is  covered  with  a  certain  perfume.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  well-beloved  Bishop  of  Tabasco  could 
not,  on  account  of  his  exceeding  poverty,  go  from  the 
capital  to  see  his  dying  father.1  And  in  many  other 
parts  of  Mexico  the  priests  are,  doubtless,  very  worthy 
men,  and  I  suppose  that  it  is  natural  that  one  should 
hear  about  the  reprobates.  But  if  the  upper  classes 
who  concern  themselves  in  things  ecclesiastical  could 
be  more  often  pious  than  what  in  schoolboy's  English 
is  called  '  pi ' — that  is  beato,  if  they  struck  themselves 
less  often  on  their  breasts  I  think  the  priests,  by  their 
activities  and  their  example,  would  less  often  strike 
the  Indians  to  the  mud.  In  Mexico  the  picturesque 
is  always  round  the  corner  :  as  the  bell  of  Angelus 
tolls  in  the  watch-tower  of  an  ancient  farm  you  may 
perceive  the  master  and  his  Indians  kneeling  in  the 
long  verandah,  in  the  yards  where  precious  hemp  is 
drying  and  among  the  twilit  meadows ;  when  the 
ceremony  is  concluded  the  grave  Indian  moves 
towards  his  master,  wishing  him  a  happy  night, 
whereat  the  master  gravely  bows  and  wishes  him  the 
same.   Two  hours  later  you  may  see  a  vast  procession 

1  However,  it  is  not  my  business  to  compile  a  list  of  admirable 
bishops.  Or  shall  anyone  whose  roof  lets  in  the  sky  be  bound  to 
listen  to  the  landlord  when  he  demonstrates  that  this  is  quite  unusual  ? 
There  are,  I  do  not  doubt,  a  number  of  archbishops  and  of  bishops 
in  the  Mexican  Republic  who  permit  the  sky  to  filter  through  them. 
And  it  is,  I  hope,  still  less  my  business,  to  declare  that  I  do  not 
attack  the  Church  of  Rome.  4  At  the  risk  of  appearing  prejudiced, ' 
so  write  two  recent  travellers,  '  we  must  say  that  the  Catholicism  of 
the  country  is  so  decadent  that  its  disgraceful  services  would  be  best 
done  without.'  I  do  attack  the  Church  of  Mexico  which  calls  itself 
Roman  Catholic,  as  it  might  call  itself  Wesleyan. 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


51 


serpentining  through  the  darkness,  with  a  crackling 
and  a  flash  of  fireworks,  white-clad  men  supremely 
happy,  bent  old  women-slaves  and  women  with  the 
rapture  of  Madonnas  giving  sustenance  to  babies  who 
resemble  apes. 

And  now  the  discontent  exploded.  It  was  like  the 
sudden  and  complete  upheaval  of  a  house  of  cards. 
This  town  was  trembling  at  the  near  approach  of 
desperate  ex-slaves,  that  town  was  utterly  deserted, 
here  the  agent  of  a  farm  was  done  to  death  and  rail- 
way trains  were  overturned  and  Aristegui  tearfully 
prayed  for  advice  from  Mr.  Blake,  the  imperturbable. 
The  governor  tried,  indeed,  to  be  a  man  of  iron  ;  for 
he  summoned  the  two  editors  and  told  them,  with  a 
meaning  glance,  that  it  would  be  unpatriotic  if  they 
did  not  publish  lies.  (To  the  'Diario  Yucateco'  it 
would  have  been  rather  uncongenial.)  And  at 
Catmis,  where  the  valiant  Yaquis  and  the  Mayas 
had  entrenched  themselves,  the  soldiers  of  the  Cuerpo 
de  Seguridad  Publica  took  to  their  heels  with  small 
delay — poor  peasants,  many  of  them  had  been  made 
to  serve  a  second  time  in  this  militia.  They  departed 
now  so  rapidly  that  as  they  burst  into  a  station  and 
began  to  set  a  waiting  train  in  movement  it  was 
necessary  for  the  doctor  to  abandon  all  his  baggage 
and  run  feverishly  after  them.  It  was  like  seeing  lions, 
said  the  Press.  Two  officers  were  told  that  they  would 
be  court-martialled.  In  a  few  days  Aristegui  saw  that 
everything  was  lost,  he  telegraphed  to  Mexico  for 
troops,  and  when  they  came  they  were  but  numerous 
enough  to  guard  the  banks  of  Merida  and  certain  of 
the  public  buildings.  No  hacendado  with  an  unclear 
conscience  dared  to  show  himself  outside  of  Merida, 
except  to  go  down  furtively  to  where  a  ship  was.  So 
the  despotism  of  Don  Olegario  and  the  boot-importer 


52       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


went  the  way  of  despotisms.  Merida  was  on  the  eve 
of  being  captured,  when  a  temporary  Governor  came 
from  Mexico,  one  General  Curiel,  who  was  received 
with  wild  rejoicing.  Thirteen  members  of  the  local 
congress  met  that  night,  on  the  13th  of  March,  after 
Aristegui  had  been  actual  Governor  during  thirteen 
months  and  thirteen  days.  '  I  venture  to  suggest,' 
said  the  presiding  gentleman,  6  that  Sefior  Aristegui' s 

application  for  a  leave  of  absence  ,'  but  the  rest 

was  drowned  in  laughter.  And  the  other  members  of 
the  Congress  swayed  upon  their  rocking-chairs  and 
vainly  searched  for  inspiration  in  the  ceiling  and  were 
silent,  even  as  a  tongueless  chicken  in  the  old  days 
when  a  hacendado  would  have  met  his  death  if  he  had 
been  detected  in  his  camp  by  Mayas  whom  he  had  de- 
spoiled. The  members  of  the  Congress  merely  nodded, 
as  they  had  so  often  done  before.  .  .  .  And  two  days 
later,  with  a  certain  feeling  of  relief,  I  left  the  State. 
And  yet  it  had  been  glorious  to  march  beside  the 
brave  battalions  and  at  last  to  see  my  dear  and  long- 
afflicted  friends  triumphant.  But  with  even  such  high 
thoughts  I  could  not  keep  myself  from  thinking, 
pleasurably,  of  my  own  survival.  If  the  hostile  powers 
never  meant  to  slay  me,  they  at  all  events  had  taken 
to  themselves  this  extract  out  of  Arthur  Hugh 
Clough's  Decalogue  : — 

Thou  shalt  not  kill,  but  needst  not  strive 
Officiously  to  keep  alive. 

And  I  was  now  disturbed  by  nothing,  save  to  know 
how  much  the  secret- service  men  would  want  in  tips. 


It  was  a  clear  and  cold  March  evening  when  we  all 
sailed  out  together  from  Progreso  towards  the  setting 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


53 


sun.  Our  boat  moved  imperceptibly,  and  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  pale  streak  we  left  behind  us  I  should 
not  have  thought  that  we  were  moving.  In  the  boat 
came  the  dethroned  one,  Munoz  Aristegui,  now 
looking  like  a  weary  grandmamma,  and  his  alert 
young  secretary  who  directed  Public  Works  in 
Yucatan.  This  person,  Medina  Ayora,  put  a  bold 
face  on  the  business,  but  was  forced  at  frequent 
intervals  to  wipe  his  pince-nez  with  his  handkerchief. 
And  on  the  boat,  with  the  appearance  of  a  burglar 
who  has  had  too  much  to  eat,  came  likewise  Don 
Ricardo  Molina.  '  Our  beloved  editor,'  so  the 
6  Diario  Yucateco '  had  proclaimed  that  morning, 
'  travels  to  the  capital  of  the  Republic,  there  to  occupy 
his  seat  in  Congress.'  And  though  Congress  was  not 
to  assemble  for  another  fortnight,  he  had  come  from 
Merida  by  special  train,  out  to  the  steamship  by  a 
special  tender,  so  consumed  was  he  with  passion  to 
begin  his  duties.  And  I  think  he  was  considering  the 
black  points  of  his  Fatherland,  which  as  a  legislator 
he  must  help  to  rub  away.  At  all  events,  Ricardo  in 
the  yellow  shooting-cap  was  very  glum.  He  strode 
about  the  deck  and  scowled,  what  time  poor  Munoz 
querulously  spoke  into  Medina's  ear.  For  those  three 
comrades  it  was  a  most  miserable  world,  this  world  of 
ours ;  the  pallor  which  had  fallen  over  it  was  universal 
surely,  and  would  surely  last  for  ever.  And  behind 
the  boat  was  spread  the  pallid  streak  of  foam  upon  the 
dark  waves  that  were  laughing,  laughing. 

Far  to  the  left  of  us  were  palms,  and  they  were 
bowing  us  farewell.  The  clumsy  little  tender  rolled 
across  the  purple  waves  ;  not  this  black  vessel  on  our 
left  and  not  the  sun  to  which  we  steered  could  inter- 
rupt the  solemn  laughter  of  the  sea.  That  sun  was 
golden,  with  a  lower  part  of  red,  as  if  the  gold  were 


54       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


being  manufactured  in  the  crucible.  And  suddenly 
the  crucible  was  emptied  of  its  treasure  and  red-hot 
had  fallen  down  on  to  the  water's  rim.  Beyond  it  was 
a  region  which  had  opalescent  and  frail  clouds  upon 
the  frontier — and  the  sun  attempted  to  set  fire  to 
them.  Not  so  impregnable  to  mourners  is  the 
boundary  of  the  land  of  dream  and  less  alluring  is  the 
frontier  of  the  gracious  meadows  of  the  dead.  Some 
birds,  black  messengers,  fly  upward  out  of  sight.  .  .  . 
A  greyness  overwhelms  the  sky,  save  where  a  spatter- 
ing of  red  and  yellow  stains  it  and  recalls  the  flag 
which  has  now  utterly  been  banished — at  my  side 
the  yellow  shooting-cap — has  Spain  been  banished 
utterly  ?  But  now  the  shore  of  Yucatan  is  nothing, 
is  a  shadow  on  the  margin  of  the  sea.  There,  to  the 
south  and  east  and  west,  the  slaves  have  gone  to  sleep. 
And  one  or  two  of  them,  the  Mayas,  dream  about  the 
men  who  raised  the  pyramid  at  Chichen  Itza  ;  one  or 
two  of  them,  the  Yaquis,  dream  about  their  brothers 
in  the  mountains  of  Sonora.  (Now  the  deputy  is 
talking  to  me.)  One  of  them,  perhaps,  will  rise  up 
from  his  dream  and  make  it  flash  against  the  world's 
indifference,  as  yonder  lighthouse  flashes  on  the 
greyness.  Presently  we  veer  a  point,  the  wind  is 
blowing  at  us  straight  from  Mexico — what  is  it  that 
the  deputy  was  saying  ?  Then  the  clouds  upon  the 
frontier  change  to  lilac,  and  they  are  not  so  much  cloud 
as  they  are  lace,  from  heaven  falling  on  the  sea. 

My  friend  the  sea  !  It  was  on  the  next  afternoon 
that  someone  overheard  the  Public  Works  Director 
and  our  deputy  Ricardo  as  they  plotted.  But  the 
Yucatecan  friend  who  overheard  them  was  a  sorry 
negligible  sight  upon  a  deck-chair,  and  Ricardo, 
clinging  to  the  rail,  informed  the  other  that  he  would 
reward  him  more  than  handsomely  if  he  could 


COMO  TAPABOCA 


55 


penetrate  into  my  cabin  and  secure  the  documents. 
It  would  be  such  a  good  thing  for  the  country,  quoth 
Ricardo.  How  he  meant  his  comrade  to  proceed  I 
know  not,  and  apparently  such  enterprises  are  not 
in  the  province  of  a  Public  Works  Director  ;  this  one, 
anyhow,  was  waiting  for  instructions.  And  the  sea 
grew  very  playful  and  Ricardo  wanted  to  hear  nothing 
more  about  my  documents. 


CHAPTER  II 


WHAT  LERDO  DE  TEJADA  THOUGHT 
OF  DIAZ 

There  fell  into  my  hands  one  day  in  Mexico  the 
charming  little  book  of  Don  Sebastian  Lerdo  de 
Tejada.  It  was  written1  in  New  York  in  1889,  but 
I  suppose  that  there  are  fewer  copies  of  it  now  extant 
than  there  have  been  good  Presidents  in  Mexico. 
Assassination  was  the  lot  of  those  who  printed  it  and 
tried  to  publish  it  abroad.  The  second  part  '  In 
Exile '  (En  el  Destierro)  I  have  not  as  yet  secured ; 
the  myrmidons  of  Don  Porfirio  have  had  the  start 
of  me.  But  in  the  meanwhile  I  will  give  some  ex- 
tracts from  the  former  volume,  and  its  author  was  a 
philosophic  person  very  qualified  to  deal  with  such 
a  subject.  He  preceded  Don  Porfirio  in  office,  having 
come  there  automatically  on  the  sudden  death,  in 
1872,  of  the  great  Zapotec  Benito  Juarez.   They  did 

1  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  Don  Sebastian  did  not  write  this 
little  book  himself,  but  that  another  exiled  Mexican  composed  it  from 
the  scraps  of  conversation,  documents  and  letters  he  was  able  to 
collect.  If  anything  be  fanciful  one  cannot  for  that  reason  say  that 
it  is  wholly  destitute  of  value ;  we  must  try  to  separate  the  wheat 
and  chaff.  Don  Trinidad  Sanchez  Santos,  editor  of  '  El  Pais,'  and 
the  most  able  publicist,  perhaps,  in  Mexico,  was  of  opinion  that  what- 
ever is  most  intimate  comes  straight  from  the  ex-President.  It  may 
be  added  that  the  man  who  generally  is  reputed  to  have  edited  this 
book  asked  Don  Porfirio,  four  years  ago,  if  he  might  come  back  after 
twenty  years  of  exile.  Diaz  answered  that  he  had  got  no  objection, 
but  that  he  could  not  say  what  the  attitude  would  be  of  Justice.  And 
the  editor  is  very  credibly  reported  to  have  stayed  in  the  United 
States. 


56 


WHAT  LERDO  DE  TEJADA  THOUGHT  57 


not  in  those  days  have  Vice-Presidents  in  Mexico  ; 
the  man  who  by  the  law  succeeded  was  the  head  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Justice.  Lerdo  de  Tejada's 
brother  Miguel  was  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  Mexi- 
cans, and  as  for  him  himself,  a  political  opponent — 
an  Imperialist — has  told  me  of  an  interview  which 
happened  in  Jalapa.1  For  an  hour  my  friend  was 
pouring  out  his  arguments  with  something  more  than 
vigour,  while  Sebastian,  walking  up  and  down  the 
cloisters,  occupied  the  next  hour  in  corrosive  criticism, 
point  by  point,  of  all  the  arguments,  and  he  had 
made  no  single  note.  When  he  was  President  he 
carried  all  his  business  in  his  memory.  And  he  knew 
how  to  write  ! 

4  If  there  is  any  sting,'  he  says,  '  in  certain  of  the 
pages,  may  my  loyal  and  my  faithful  fellow-citizens 
forgive  me  :  fruits  which  to  the  fingers  are  most 
rough  are  most  delightful  to  the  palate.  This  is  not 
a  diatribe,  it  is  no  satire,  no  complaint ;  but  merely 
some  impressions  which  I  should  not  like  to  die  with 
me.  In  exile  I  have  altered  my  ideas  on  men,  but 
notwithstanding  this  the  men  have  undergone  for 
me  no  alteration  :  that  is  to  say,  that  I  shall  judge 
them  as  before  my  glorious  disaster  of  1876/ 

He  met  Porfirio  Diaz  in  the  first  days  of  the 
restoration  of  the  Republic  ;  but  he  had  already 
heard  of  him  from  Juarez  at  the  time  of  the  Vidaurri 
execution.  '  He  is  a  man,'  said  Juarez,  6  who  weeps 
when  he  is  killing.'  And  a  few  days  later  he  was 
seeing  off  some  traitors  at  the  station.  He  had 
wished  to  have  them  shot,  and  now  was  breathing 
words  of  consolation,  while  his  handkerchief  was 

1  Capital  of  the  State  of  Veracruz.  Also  spelled  :  Xalapa,  and 
pronounced  almost  like  Ha-lappa.  But  of  course  we  have  retained 
our  own  pronunciation — jalap — of  the  root  of  that  plant  which  was 
brought  from  there  and  is  employed  in  medicine  as  a  cathartic. 


58       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


soaked  with  tears.  He  railed  at  the  Republic  for 
this  unjust  sentence,  and  on  the  departure  of  the 
train  he  waved  his  kepi  and  he  wept.  '  Are  you 
aware,'  said  Don  Sebastian  to  Juarez,  4  that  he  is 
eccentric  ?  '  4  What  ?  Has  he  been  shooting  some- 
one else  ?  '  the  President  demanded.  4  Not  a  bit  of 
it.  He  has  been  seeing  off  the  traitors  at  the  station.' 
'  Yes,'  quoth  Juarez,  '  either  he  is  shooting  people 
or  is  bidding  them  farewell.  .  .  .  He  is  original ! ' 

It  may  be  urged  that  Presidents  in  exile  are  not, 
when  they  write  of  their  successors,  as  dispassionate 
as  one  would  wish ;  but  Don  Sebastian  was  too 
humorous,  too  cynical,  too  wise  to  let  his  feelings 
carry  him  away.  4  In  order  to  convert,'  he  says, 
4  a  friend  into  an  enemy  one  look  is  all  you  need ;  to 
make  an  enemy  your  friend  you  will  shed  all  your 
tears  in  vain.'  The  prejudice  with  which  we  regard  a 
Latin- American,  saying  that  he  must  be  always  at  the 
one  extreme  or  at  the  other,  and  that  cool  apprecia- 
tion is  beyond  his  reach — I  think  our  author  was  not 
so  much  tainted  as  are  many  Anglo-Saxons.  Member 
of  an  old  colonial  family,  he  knew  his  Mexico,  and 
treating  of  Oaxaca1  (on  whose  soil  a  public  man  is  born 
as  often  as  a  public  woman  in  Jalisco)  he  observes 
that  most  of  the  celebrities,  political  and  economical, 
of  Mexico  have  had  their  cradle  in  the  southern  State. 
4  Every  baptism  of  a  little  Oaxacanian,'  he  remarks, 
'  is  but  another  cypher  added  to  the  burden  of  the 
Budget ;  every  wedding  is  a  threat  against  the 
Treasury.  The  education  of  a  little  Oaxacanian  is 
achieved  as  easily  as  crying  :  after  he  has  read  the 
proclamations  of  General  Diaz,  the  economic  notes 
of  Don  Matias  Romero,  and  the  diplomatic  notes  of 
Mariscal  he  can  obtain  the  first  diploma  and  the  first 
1  Pronounced :  Wa  hacca. 


WHAT  LERDO  DE  TEJADA  THOUGHT  59 


public  employment.  It  is  said  that  these  children 
do  not  weep  nor  suckle,  but  all  the  Oaxacanians 
weep.  .  .  .'  They  choose,  he  says,  the  sword  or  else 
the  law  for  their  profession,  and  they  are  so  morbid 
that  when  they  are  not  for  killing  someone — they  do 
not  commit  suicide.  4  Cunning  and  hypocrisy  are 
qualities  inherent  in  a  Oaxacanian,  and  he  cultivates 
with  nice  attention  both  these  attributes  of  Nature. 
His  mission  in  the  world  is  this  :  to  last  as  long  as 
possible — and  nearly  all  of  them  arrive  at  being 
centenarians  ! — to  work  as  little  as  possible  and  to 
live,  to  live  well.  .  .  .  His  determination  is  inflexible  : 
the  courage  of  Juarez  in  the  wilderness,  and  the 
tenacity  (by  fits  and  starts)  of  Diaz,  the  heroic 
patience  of  Don  Matias  piling  up  his  nonsense,  these 
are  three  different  manifestations  of  perseverance. 
In  whatever  way  it  shows  itself,  this  virtue  elevates 
the  Oaxacanian  :  in  a  century  of  little  muddy  men 
the  men  of  bronze  impose  themselves.  The  Oaxa- 
canians are  men  of  bronze.  .  .  .'  Louis  XI.,  of  unholy 
memory,  was  wont  to  use  a  Latin  proverb  which  we 
may  translate  :  Who  knows  not  how  to  feign,  he 
knows  not  how  to  reign.  And  this,  says  Don  Sebas- 
tian, '  is  the  strong  side  of  the  estimable  Oaxacanians. 
There  is  nothing  we  can  call  fictitious  about  Don 
Matias  :  I  conceive  of  him  as  being  one  of  the  most 
famous  fools  in  Mexico.  But  he  is  a  bona-fide  fool : 
he  thinks  he  is  a  man  of  talent.  .  .  .  And  he  has  a 
special  tact  :  to  lawyers  he  will  talk  about  finance 
and  to  financiers  of  the  law,  to  diplomats  he  will 
discourse  on  architecture  and  to  architects  upon 
diplomacy.  And  if  no  person  understands  him, 
everyone  cries  out  his  fame.  Ah,  yes  !  if  General 
Diaz  is  a  wonderful  comedian,  Don  Matias  as  trage- 
dian is  sublime.'   And  we  are  told  how  Don  Matias, 


60       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


the  bronze  lion  of  Washington  society  (when  he  was 
Minister),  found  that  his  melancholy  countenance 
was  sometimes  inconvenient,  as  when  Lord  Paunce- 
fote  at  a  reception  took  him  for  a  lackey  and  gave 
over  to  him  hat  and  coat  and  stick. 

Our  author  meditates  upon  the  Yucatecans  and 
their  neighbours  of  Campeche,  who  are  given  less  to 
politics,  4  but  when  the  Lord  our  God  commands  that 
they  should  walk  this  road  they  do  it  with  the  utmost 
energy.  I  do  not  know  if  they  were  friends  of  mine 
or  of  my  presidency,  but  I  had  a  couple  of  Campeche 
friends  :  Pedro  and  Joaquin  Baranda.  This  Don 
Pedro  was  a  personage,  theatrical  and  smart,  such 
as  we  only  meet  with  nowadays,  alas  !  in  the  vignettes 
that  decorate  the  "  History  of  Frederick  of  Prussia  "  ; 
without  having  found  himself  in  a  single  battle  he 
possessed  the  rank  of  General  and  (which  is  still  more 
tremendous)  the  reputation  of  a  gallant  fellow.  .  .  . 
Some  days  after  the  distracted  flight  of  General  Diaz 
on  the  plains  of  Icamole  this  magnificent  Don  Pedro 
spurred  the  Palace  carpets  and  addressed  me,  "  If 
you  authorise  me,  Senor  Lerdo,  I  engage  myself  to 
bring  the  head  of  Don  Porfirio  Diaz."  .  .  . 

4  "  General,"  said  I,  "do  not  molest  yourself.  It 
is  sufficient  if  you  bring  his  ears."  .  .  . 

'  On  the  day  after  the  action  at  Epatlan  the  same 
Senor  Baranda  said  to  me,  "  I  should  desire  to  sally 
to  Campeche,  Mr.  President." 

4  "  But  the  revolutionary  Diaz,"  I  replied,  "  ad- 
vances by  Oaxaca  !  " 

4  44  That  is  true,  and  I  am  anxious  to  demolish  him 
upon  the  sea." 

4  4  4  All  right.  Remember,  you  are  going  to  bring 
his  head  !  " 

4  44  His  ears,  Mr.  President,  his  ears."  .  .  . 


WHAT  LERDO  DE  TEJADA  THOUGHT  61 


4  "  Oh,  very  well ;  whichever  causes  you  least 
inconvenience." 

4  And  he  vanished,  with  a  clink  of  spurs.'  .  .  . 

The  memories  of  Don  Sebastian  have  their  varied 
facets,  and,  although  it  does  not  deal  with  General 
Diaz,  we  may  quote  the  following  adventure  with  a 
dramatist.  Chavero's  snuff-box  was  more  perilous 
than  many  hostile  cannons,  so  the  Army  Secretary 
used  to  say,  and  thus  one  gathers  an  idea  of  Don 
Sebastian's  manfulness.  '  One  night  in  February, 
1874,'  he  says,  '  a  little  person  who  was  swathed  up  to 
his  eyebrows  in  a  black  and  flowing  mantle,  with  an 
air  of  one  of  the  fantastic  folk  of  Hoffman,  moved 
towards  me  and  :  "  I  come,"  he  said — his  voice  was 
melancholy — "  Don  Sebastian,  I  come  to  speak  with 
you  upon  a  grave  and  private  matter.  .  .  .  Are  the 
doors  all  locked  ?  "  44  They  are."  44  No  one  can 
interrupt  us  ?  "  44  No  one  !  not  a  fly,  nor  flea."  .  .  . 
Then  the  muffled  person  showed  himself  :  it  was 
Don  Alfredo  Chavero  !  Nervously  he  started  fingering 
a  manuscript.  Some  idol  that  he  has  exhumed,  I 
thought.  44  The  tempest  of  a  kiss,"  quoth  he.  44 1 
beg  your  pardon  ?  "  44  That  is  what  my  work  is 
called  :  The  tempest  of  a  kiss."  44  Dear  me,  that's 
good."  44  You  think  so,  Senor  Lerdo  ?  "  44  Certainly, 
and  it  is  most  original.  I  have  seen  tempests  in  the 
sky  and  tempests  in  a  lover,  even  tempests  in  a  glass 
of  pulque;  but  the  tempest  in  a  kiss  .  .  .  ah,  what 
originality  !  "  44  So  I  have  come,"  he  was  most 
solemn,  44 1  have  come  to  read  my  drama  to  you.  It 
is  worthy  of  great  Calderon,  says  Dr.  Peredo."  .  .  . 
44 1  am  very  sorry,  but  I  have  no  time."  .  .  .  44  In 
that  case,  Sehor  Lerdo,  let  me  read  the  first  act  to 
you  .  .  .  hardly  more  than  two  hours."  44  It  is 
impossible,  Sefior  Chavero  !  "    44  Nor  the  argument  ? 


62       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


In  two  words  I  will  tell  it  you.  The  niece  of  an  aunt 
falls  in  love  with  a  cousin  ;  the  cousin  of  the  cousin 
falls  in  love  with  the  niece  ;  the  tutor  intervenes  and 
marries  the  apple  of  discord.  The  two  cousins  fight 
and  kill  each  other.  The  aunt  of  the  niece  dies  of 
anguish  ;  the  niece  dies  also  in  giving  a  kiss  to  the 
cousin  number  one.  What  a  simple  drama,  what  a 
moving  plot !  Do  you  not  think  so,  Mr.  President  ?  " 
"  Sublime  !  only  that  .  .  ."  "  Yes  ?  "  "I  should 
also  kill  the  tutor."  "Ah,  but  how?"  "By 
burning  the  drama."  .  .  .' 

And  he  gives  the  picture  of  another  interview, 
between  Benito  Juarez  and  the  Princess  Salm-Salm,1 
which  has  not  been  always  truthfully  depicted.  '  The 
Salm-Salm  had  about  her  nothing  of  romance : 
American  by  birth  and  education,  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race,  so  cold  and  positive  .  .  .  she  came  twice  to 
San  Luis  to  see  Juarez;  but  these  unexpected  visits 
had  been  instigated  by  the  thoughtfulness  of  General 
Diaz,  who  was  eager  to  get  rid  of  the  Princess  and 
found  no  better  way  than  that  of  sending  her  to  us 
at  San  Luis,  assuring  her  that  Juarez  would  forgive 
the  Archduke.    But  as  all  the  acts  of  General  Diaz, 

1  This  lady  died  in  December,  1912.  Miss  Agnes  Leclerc,  as  she 
then  was,  met  Prince  Felix  Salm-Salm  in  the  early  sixties  when  she 
was  a  bareback  circus-rider.  Fascinated  by  her  beauty,  he  married 
her  one  morning  at  five  o'clock,  and  the  couple  became  two  of  the 
most  popular  and  most  talked  of  people  in  America.  The  Prince 
raised  a  volunteer  regiment,  and,  her  training  having  made  her 
absolutely  fearless  and  a  perfect  horsewoman,  the  Princess  was  often 
at  the  head  of  the  regiment  on  the  field  of  battle.  Governor  Yates 
gave  her  a  Captain's  commission  and  pay  in  addition,  but  she  gave 
all  the  money  for  the  wounded.  In  1863  the  Prince  took  part  in  the 
Mexican  Revolution,  assisting  the  Emperor  until  1867,  when  they 
both  were  captured  and  sentenced  to  death.  The  Princess  managed 
to  obtain  from  Juarez  an  order  for  her  husband's  release.  He  returned 
to  Prussia  and  died  on  the  battlefield  in  1871.  She,  for  her  services 
as  nurse  in  the  same  campaign,  was  awarded  the  Iron  Cross,  being 
the  only  woman  upon  whom  this  coveted  distinction  had  ever  been 
bestowed. 


WHAT  LERDO  DE  TEJADA  THOUGHT  68 


even  those  that  are  most  insignificant,  are  bound  up 
with  duplicity,  he  gave  to  the  unfortunate  Princess 
the  letter  of  Pausanias.1  As  she  only  spoke  German 
and  English,  she  employed  the  latter  in  her  interviews, 
and  Don  Jose  Iglesias  was  the  interpreter.  These 
interviews  were  not  at  all  dramatic  :  Don  Benito's 
face  was  like  a  mask.' 

It  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  repeat  the  several 
tales  about  the  childhood  and  the  youth  of  Diaz. 
Other  tales,  of  an  heroic  nature,  have  been  told  us 
pretty  often,  and  we  have  to  cast  aside  so  many 
splendid  adjectives  that  have  been  showered  on  his 
later  years,  we  have  to  come  to  think  of  such  a 
different  man  that  we  should  be  quite  dazed  if  we 
could  not  preserve  at  least  those  early  stories.  Don 
Sebastian,  doubtless,  took  enormous  pains  to  make 
investigations — he  had  little  else  to  do  when  he  was 
exiled — his  ability  is  undisputed,  but  he  may  have 
been  deceived  when  he  gave  credence  to  these  most 
ferocious  tales.  When  he  refers,  however,  to  the 
celebrated  skirmish  of  the  2nd  of  April  and  the  birth 
of  Don  Porfirio's  widespread  popularity  he  gives  the 
figures  and  we  have  to  listen.  Thirteen  thousand 
desperadoes,  he  asserts,  flew  down  upon  4000  wretched 
people,  and  it  is  a  fact  that  fifty-six  officers,  captured 
by  treason,  were  dispatched  at  the  command  of  Diaz. 
There  is  some  discrepancy  between  the  various 
historians.  '  The  Republican  forces  swept  everything 
before  them,'  says  the  Mexican  '  Year  Book,'  and 
that  is  what  usually  happens  when  4000  are  attacked 
by  13,000.    6  Their  losses  were  cruel,'  says  the  '  Year 

1  This,  of  course,  refers  to  the  King  of  Sparta,  who  sent  a  letter  to 
Artabazus,  a  Persian  Satrap  in  Asia  Minor.  The  letter  was  treason- 
able and  the  postscript  said  'Kill  bearer'  (cf.  Thucydides  i.  132). 
The  passage  in  Homer  about  Bellerophon,  who  went  to  the  King  of 
Lycia  bearing  a  similar  message,  is  in  Iliad  vi.  160,  etc. 


64       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Book,'  which  is  really  a  most  handsome  volume 
issued  '  under  the  auspices  of  the  department  of 
finance  '  and  published  in  two  different  shades  of 
red  and  gold  in  London  at  a  guinea.  4  Their  losses 
were  cruel,'  says  the  '  Year  Book,'  whose  700  pages 
are  so  full  of  pleasant  information  that  I  think  it 
is  the  price  alone  which  has  prevented  it  from  being 
on  the  shelves  of  every  family  which  knows  our 
tongue.  An  optimistic  writer  is  the  one  who  revels 
in  a  circulation  ;  here  we  have  a  band  of  writers  who 
are  all  of  them  and  all  the  time  magnificently  opti- 
mistic. Those  of  you  who  have  some  sorrow  in  the 
world,  come  buy  this  gorgeous  book,  and  if  you  have 
4000  wretched  sorrows  they  will  be  annihilated  surely. 
In  that  part  which  is  devoted  to  the  blinding  grandeur 
of  Porfirio  Diaz  it  observes  that  'their  losses  were 
cruel,'  and  apparently  'tis  not  intended  to  have 
reference  to  the  fifty-six  officers.  '  The  heroic 
Mexicans,'  so  says  another  writer  (and  I  do  not  think 
that  he  is  subsidised),  4  captured  one  entrenchment 
after  another,  and  daylight  saw  them  in  possession 
of  the  place.'  Now  what  says  Don  Sebastian  ? 
'  Everything,'  he  assures  us,  '  was  in  favour  of  General 
Diaz :  superiority  in  numbers,  moral  superiority, 
and  topographical  superiority  :  there  was  no  battle 
and  no  strategy  :  the  Imperialists  fired  a  few  cart- 
ridges and  deserted,  especially  the  members  of  the 
foreign  legion,  who  had  asked  already  for  an  armistice 
from  Don  Porfirio.'  It  likewise  is  a  fact  that  when 
I  was  in  Mexico  some  of  the  bolder  spirits  ventured 
to  protest  against  the  naming  of  a  street  6  Dos  de 
Abril.'  Says  Don  Sebastian,  '  The  rout  of  Marquez 
and  his  retreat  to  the  capital  were  due  to  General 
Toro  :  the  siege  of  Mexico  is  the  most  humiliating 
page  in  the  campaigns  of  Diaz.    Not  only  did  he 


WHAT  LERDO  DE  TEJADA  THOUGHT  65 


prolong  the  siege  at  the  instance  of  Marquez,  but  he 
allowed  him  to  escape,  protecting  him  as  far  as 
Veracruz.  Afterwards,  when  the  Republican  Govern- 
ment was  re-established,  wishing  to  balance  his 
military  errors  with  an  act  of  theatrical  probity,  he 
gave  back  300,000  pesos,  which  remained  when  he 
had  paid  the  troops.' 

Perhaps,  indeed,  this  reimbursement  was  not  made 
without  an  object,  but  we  surely  must  believe 
that  Don  Sebastian  goes  too  far  when  he  accuses 
Don  Porfirio  of  treating  with  Bazaine.  6  On  15th 
August,  1865,'  he  says,  4 1  sent  a  circular  at  the 
command  of  Juarez  to  the  chiefs  of  the  Republicans, 
announcing  that  the  National  Government  would 
never  quit  the  country.  These  circulars  came  to  the 
hands  of  Escobedo,  of  Regules,  of  Corona,  of  Porfirio 
Diaz  ;  in  a  note  appended  to  them  by  the  Minister 
of  War  those  leaders  were  required  to  read  the 
circulars  to  their  respective  corps  in  the  Order  of  the 
day,  since  it  was  well  that  all  the  people  should  have 
knowledge  of  these  patriotic  resolutions.  General 
Diaz  did  not  read  the  circular,  although  he  was 
commanded  twice  to  do  so.  This  unpardonable  act 
was  not  explained  to  us  when  we  were  in  Chihuahua, 
whether  it  was  owing  to  the  difficulties  of  transit  or  to 
the  prevalence  of  warring  bands,  but  in  San  Luis  news 
was  brought  to  Juarez,  indicating  that  the  motive  of 
the  disobedience  of  Diaz  was  that  he  was  in  active 
communication  with  Bazaine.  ...  In  truth,  the 
traitor  of  Sedan  in  his  attempt  to  grasp  at  Mexico 
was,  as  is  well  known,  treating  with  some  chiefs  of 
the  Republicans.  Who  were  those  chiefs  ?  Until 
now  all  is  conjecture  and  induction  in  this  dark 
affair  ;  and  it  is  by  conjecture  and  induction  that 
the  crime  may  be  explained.  .  .  .  Diaz  was  a  prisoner 

F 


66       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


of  the  French  ;  could  his  escape  from  Puebla  be 
feasible,  when  he  was  looked  on  as  a  dangerous  man  ? 
There  should  be  still  in  Mexico  a  Frenchman  of  the 

name  of  M  ,  who  carried  several  secret  notes 

from  Diaz  to  Bazaine.  .  .  .' 

But  after  all  we  have  the  6  Year  Book,'  which  is 
published  by  McCorquodale  and  Co.  Ltd.,  40  Coleman 
Street,  London,  E.C.  (all  rights  reserved),  and  there 
we  learn  that  Diaz  6  was  destined  to  play  so  tran- 
scendent a  part,  not  only  during  the  remainder  of  the 
war  against  the  French  and  against  the  Empire, 
but  .  .  .'  and  so  forth.  And  besides,  he  is  a  patriot. 
Did  he  not  prove  it  when  in  1876  at  Palo  Blanco  he 
gave  out  a  proclamation  to  the  poor,  downtrodden, 
outraged  Mexicans  ?  The  patriot  (in  Article  10) 
promised  '  to  deliver  the  country  from  the  oppression 
of  foreign  enterprises.'  This  alone  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  he  was  not  the  sort  of  man  to  parley 
with  Bazaine,  whose  enterprise  assuredly  was  foreign. 
If,  however,  we  give  ear  to  Don  Sebastian,  we  can 
argue  that  men  are  not  born  to  virtue,  it  must  con- 
stantly  be  thrust  upon  them,  and  one  can  become  a 
patriot  in  course  of  time.  Eleven  years  divide  these 
incidents  ;  perhaps  the  General  in  1876  had  recently 
become  a  patriotic  person.  He  was  very  fine  just 
then;  he  undertook  (in  Article  11)  that  lotteries  should 
be  abolished,  as  they  were  immoral,  and  if  you  still 
doubt  his  patriotic  fervour  look,  I  pray  you,  at  the 
next  Article,  wherein  he  says  he  will  not  recognise  the 
English  debt.  .  .  .  One  has  to  bow  to  circumstance, 
and  Don  Porfirio  has  not  been  able  to  fulfil  these 
promises  in  their  integrity  ;  he  said,  for  instance 
(Article  1),  that  freedom  of  election  should  no  longer 
be  a  farce,  and  furthermore  he  promised  (Article  7) 
that  the  Public  Power  would  not  slay  its  enemies. 


WHAT  LERDO  DE  TEJADA  THOUGHT  67 


However,  we  may  recognise  that  his  intentions  were 
profoundly  patriotic. 

Don  Sebastian  remains  the  devil's  advocate.  '  One 
of  the  most  valuable  qualities,'  he  says,  6  of  General 
Diaz  has  been  the  ability  to  clothe  himself  in  every 
manner  of  disguise  :  he  is  the  man  of  transformations, 
physical  and  moral.  In  the  former  Garrick,  Talma, 
Coquelin  are  left  behind,  and  as  for  moral  metamor- 
phoses— the  chronic  rebel  has  become  an  ardent 
friend  of  peace  ;  the  incendiary  of  '71  favours  the 
formation  of  a  fire  brigade  in  '88  ;  the  cattle  thief  of 
'74  advises  on  the  rearing  of  black  cattle  in  '87  ;  the 
tireless  foeman  of  the  railway  from  Mexico  to  Vera- 
cruz in  '75  hands  out  concessions  in  '77 ;  he  who  in 
'73  writes  to  a  fellow-soldier  and  insults  the  Bar  by 
calling  it  a  hospital  of  ink  will  presently  preside  at 
meetings  of  these  juris-consults.  .  . 

But  our  latest  extract  from  the  little  book  shall 
treat  of  something  picturesque.  A  letter  from  Tepic 
was  sent  in  May  of  1872  to  Lerdo  telling  how  in  April 
General  Diaz,  '  in  the  disguise  of  an  ecclesiastic  and 
accompanied  by  one  General  Galvan,  arrived  at  San 
Luis,  to  beseech  the  help  and  the  protection  of  Lozada. 
It  was  no  easy  matter  for  Diaz  to  secure  an  audience  ; 
at  last,  after  a  thousand  humiliations,  he  was  received. 
Lozada  was  standing  up  and  had  his  hat  on  ;  Diaz 
entered  and  was  followed  by  the  insignificant  Galvan. 
His  hat  was  in  his  hand  ;  he  smiled  most  sweetly,  as 
he  always  does  with  hacendados  whom  he  asks  for 
money.  He  wanted  to  embrace  Lozada,  but  was 
forced  to  be  contented  with  an  icy  hand.  Somewhat 
disconcerted,  Diaz  then  began  to  adulate  the  Tiger 
of  Alica,  swearing  that  he  burned  to  know  him  and 
that  he  was  honoured  by  the  grip  of  such  a  hand. 
He  concluded  his  renowned  harangue  in  this  way  : 


68       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


"  Persecuted  everywhere,  I  come  to  find  a  refuge  in 
this  land  of  liberty  ;  what  a  difference  between  Juarez 
the  despot  and  Miguel  Lozada  the  hospitable  and 
magnanimous ;  Miguel  Lozada,  whom  those  calum- 
niate who  know  him  not,  and  whom  /  feel  bestows 
on  me  an  honour  with  his  hand."  Was  the  hero's 
lying  repugnant  to  the  bandit  ?  Anyhow,  a  follower 
of  his  commanded,  on  the  next  day,  that  the  General 
should  leave  the  territory.  .  .  [On  the  day  after 
receiving  this  singular  letter,  Don  Sebastian  went  to 
talk  about  it  with  the  President.]  '  I  had  already 
unfolded  the  letter  to  show  him,  when  he  stayed  my 
hand  and  said  :  "I  am  certain  it  concerns  our  great 
vagabond  .  .  .  my  countryman,  Porfirio  Diaz." 

'  "  Exactly.    Have  you  had  a  presentiment  ?  " 

'  "  He  has  written  from  Tepic  and  promised  to 
prepare  an  ambush  for  Lozada,  on  the  understanding 
that  I  recompense  him  with  ..." 

'  "  But  he  has  eaten  bread  and  salt  at  the  chieftain's 
table  ...  he  can  never  be  so  treacherous.  .  .  ." 

'"No?  read. 


So  much  for  Don  Sebastian's  story.  Whether  it  be 
true  or  false  I  will  not  say,  but  I  have  met  an  erst- 
while friend  of  Diaz  who  was  never  elevated  to  the 
rank  of  General  4  because,'  said  Don  Porfirio,  4  he 
would  not  lend  me  money,  and  I  was  obliged  to  make 
myself  so  humble  to  the  robber-chief  Lozada.' 


CHAPTER  111 


WHEN  DON  PORFIRIO  WAS  CANDID 
(A  Translation) 

[This  interview,  like  that  with  Mr.  Creelman,  is  the  sum  of  various 
conversations,  only  with  the  difference  that  he  who  wrote  it  has  been,  on 
and  off,  a  friend  of  Don  Porfirio' s  for  more  than  60  years.  He  has 
been  good  enough  to  let  me  take  this  chapter  from  a  book  that  will  be 
published.  Under  Don  Porfirio  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  give 
his  name,  without  imperilling,  perhaps  his  life,  and  certainly  the  publica- 
tion of  a  very  valuable  and  authoritative  book.  Now  I  am  free  to  say 
that  it  is  Don  Ireneo  Paz,  the  venerable  editor  of 4  La  Patria. '] 

11th  February,  1909.  At  this  moment,  in  the 
clamour  of  the  rockets,  bombs  and  chimes  and 
motor-cars,  amidst  a  multitude  of  the  devout,  they 
celebrate  the  consecration  of  the  new  Archbishop  of 
Mexico,  Senor  Mora,  in  whose  honour  this  imposing 
festival  is  being  held  in  the  Cathedral  that  is  at  the 
side  of  the  National  Palace.  In  this  latter  building  is 
the  national  Supreme  Executive,  General  Porfirio 
Diaz,  who  had  possessed  himself  of  the  Government 
at  Tecoac,  his  third  and  successful  revolution. 

Exactly  at  a  quarter  past  twelve,  in  the  middle  of 
the  day,  when  all  the  central  streets  were  being 
shaken  with  the  fury  of  the  bells  and  fireworks,  an  old 
Liberal  entered  the  Palace.  He  was  one  of  those  whom 
nowadays  we  call  contemptuously  Jacobites,  who 
notwithstanding  were  accustomed  in  the  early  days 
to  fling  themselves  into  the  struggle  with  no  personal 
ambition,  with  no  wish  for  lucre ;  on  the  contrary,  in 

69 


70       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


dissipation  of  their  meagre  fortune,  of  their  health 
and  their  domestic  comfort,  risking  their  lives  at  every 
turn  in  order  that  they  might  give  utterance  to  the 
ideal  which  was  rooted  in  their  hearts,  to  form  a  people 
of  free  men.  The  foundation  of  the  Mexican  Republic 
is  the  work  of  these  Liberals,  as  is  the  Constitution 
promulgated  in  1857,  the  separation  of  Church  and 
State,  the  independence  which  was  secured  at 
Queretaro. 

4  What  noise  may  that  be,  Mr.  President  ?  '  asked 
the  old  Liberal,  in  perfect  innocence. 
t^tSeneral  Diaz  raised  himself  majestically  from  his 
seat,  walked  to  the  balcony  and  glanced  into  the 
street.  Then  he  replied,  in  off-hand  fashion,  4  It 
appears  the  new  archbishop  is  being  consecrated  in 
the  temple  there.' 

4  But  surely  the  Constitution  was  not  celebrated, 
six  days  ago,  with  such  enthusiasm.' 

4  It  was  not  celebrated  with  any.' 

4  But    the    Constitution    which    has    been  our 

laborious  ' 

Do  not  deceive  yourself,  my  friend.  The  Constitu- 
tion has  been  no  more  than  a  pretext,  so  that  we,  the 
revolutionaries,  could  take  Power  by  assault.  We 
invoked  the  Constitution,  we  fondled  it  like  a  pretty 
child,  but  really  it  has  not  been  of  the  slightest 
practical  importance  for  a  single  President  of  those 
who  proclaimed  it.' 

4  At  all  events,  it  has  assisted  them  in  sustaining 
their  authority,  since  from  the  time  of  Comonfort 
they  have  not  ceased  to  call  themselves  Constitutional 
Presidents.' 

4  And  ever  since  then  it  has  been  a  mere  obstacle  ' 

4  Very  well,  General,  we  will  talk  of  that.  We  have 
known  each  other  for  too  long,  and  we  have  always 


WHEN  DON  PORFIRIO  WAS  CANDID  71 

been  too  candid  with  each  other  to  be  able  now  to  hide 
our  thoughts.  But  apropos  the  consecration  of  this 
new  archbishop  and  all  the  turmoil  they  are  making,  I 
permit  myself  to  ask  this  question  :  Is  it  lawful  to 
be  ringing  all  those  bells  and  to  burn  all  that  powder 
and  to  deafen  us  with  the  noise  ?  ' 

'  Heavens  !  Don  Pancho,  it's  not  for  you  to  ask  me 
such  things,  when  you  know  as  well  as  I  do  what  the 
people  are  who  lead  the  Government.  You  know 
that  the  Governor,  the  sediles,  the  police,  all  those 
who  have  to  do  with  public  order,  are  the  monks' 
own  servants.  How  can  they  rise  up  in  opposition 
to  the  ceremonies  that  are  being  made  for  an  arch- 
bishop ?  ' 

^-Perhaps  the  Reform  Laws  are  not  in  operation  ?  ' 

4  That  is  another  scarecrow  which  should  not  be 
touched  by  those  who  know  as  well  as  we  do  both 
the  Mexican  people  and  its  Governors.' 

'  Then  let  us  leave  these  questions  for  the  present. 
Besides,  I  have  been  wanting  to  ask  you  if  that 
interview  which  the  papers  published  a  few  months 
ago  was  authentic,  that  one  which  is  said  to  have 
occurred  between  yourself  and  one  Creelman,  an 
American  journalist1  ?  ' 

'  What  surprises  me  is  that  sagacious  men  like  you 
should  have  been  capable  of  giving  credit  to  such 
folly ' [d  seme j ante  paparrucha]. 

'  Because  I  did  not  believe  it,  I  asked  you  if  it  was 
authentic' 

'  It's  as  true  as  a  dead  child  !  You  know  me  too 
well  to  believe  that  I  could  stroll  for  hours  upon  the 
terrace  of  Chapultepec,  exhibiting  the  white  of  my 
eyes  and  opening  my  nostrils  excessively  in  order 

1  *  Un  de  ses  plus  energiques  et  de  ses  plus  habiles  avocats,'  says 
the  Review  *  Le  Correspondant '  (Paris)  of  August,  1911. — H.  B. 


72       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


that  the  Yankee  reporter  may  be  able  to  give  wings 
vJ^his  fancy.  What  happened  was  this  :  a  friend  of 
mine,  a  member  of  my  Cabinet,  came  to  read  me  the 
article  which  was  already  manufactured  [confeccion- 
ado]  for  an  American  publication.  It  didn't  seem 
bad  to  me,  or  rather  it  seemed  very  good,  because 
without  compromising  me  much  it  lent  a  lustre  to  my 
antecedents  and  put  me  on  a  good  footing  for  the 
future,  so  that  it  gave  me  all  the  facilities  which  I 
desired,  whether  to  continue  sacrificing  myself  for  the 
Fatherland  or  to  shake  off  the  dust  thereof  [zafarme] 
in  time  if  things  should  blow  into  a  whirlwind  [d 
ponerse  turbias].  I  acknowledge  to  you  that  I  thought 
the  writing  was  so  well  dressed  up,  so  much  in  confor- 
mity with  what  are  not  but  should  be  my  profoundest 
thoughts,  so  seemly  for  our  luckless  proletariat,  that 
I  accepted  it  unhesitatingly  as  if  it  had  been  inspired 
by  me  myself,  not  making  more  than  a  very  few 
modifications  on  some  entirely  Yankee  points  of 
view  which  would  have  put  me  in  a  very  ridiculous 
position,  and  I  gave  my  consent  to  two  things  :  that 
it  should  be  published  in  English  and  Spanish,  and 
that  it  should  be  amply  paid  for/ 

6  About  how  much  was  the  cost  of  this  work  ?  ' 

'  Some  fifty  thousand  pesos.'  [Como  unos  cin- 
cuenta  mil  pesos.]1 

'  So  that  you  approve  of  everything  which  is  here  : 
that  you  are  the  most  romantic  figure,  an  unreadable 
mystery,  the  foremost  figure  of  the  American  hemi- 
sphere ?  ' 

'  Who  will  weep  if  you  give  him  bread  ?  They 
serve  up  eulogies  to  me,  let  them  continue.  In  the 
first  place,  the  size  of  political  figures  depends  on  the 
eyes  which  look  at  them ;  and  in  the  second  place,  they 

1  Surely  this  is  a  mistake  on  Don  Porfirio's  part.— H.  B. 


WHEN  DON  PORFIRIO  WAS  CANDID  73 


are  always  immense  when  they  pay  fifty  thousand 
pesos.' 

4  Then  did  you  not  use  those  words  with  which  the 
conference  begins  :  "  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
the  future  of  democracy  in  Mexico  has  been  en- 
dangered by  the  long  continuance  in  office  of  one 
President.  I  can  say  sincerely  that  office  has  not 
corrupted  my  political  ideas,  and  that  I  believe 
democracy  to  be  the  one  true,  just  principle  of  govern- 
ment, although  in  practice  it  is  only  possible  to 
highly  developed  peoples.  I  can  lay  down  the 
Presidency  of  Mexico  without  a  pang  of  regret,  but 
I  cannot  cease  to  serve  this  country  while  I  live  "  ?  ' 
V—tHbw  could  I  have  ever  uttered  such  a  series  of 
absurdities  [seme j antes  barbaridades],  when  certainly 
I  could  not  have  kept  my  countenance  while  I  was 
saying  them  ?  In  the  first  place,  this  Creelman  was 
not  so  much  of  an  imbecile  as  to  believe  the  contrary 
of  what  he  saw  and,  moreover,  those  I  govern,  though 
they  are  foolish  enough  [bastante  estiiyidos]  as  a 
whole,  are  not  so  foolish  as  to  think  that  I  have  now 
got  half  a  drachm  [un  adarme]  of  democracy  in  my 
body.  What  democracy  should  I  be  going  to  have  ? 
And  what  should  I  want  it  for  ?  ' 

'  But  formerly  you  were  a  scarlet  democrat.' 

*  Yes,  formerly,  not  now.  It  is  not  the  same  thing 
to  be  a  shopkeeper  and  a  merchant.  I  should  like 
some  of  those  flaming  democrats  who  spout  in  the 
clubs  to  come  and  occupy  my  place  for  a  couple  of 
years,  and  the  same  thing  would  happen  to  them  as  to 
me  and  Gonzalez  :  in  the  first  year,  with  the  best 
intentions,  we  wanted  to  have  freedom  of  election, 
freedom  of  debate,  freedom  of  the  Press,  freedom  of 
all  kinds,  because  we  were  also  just  as  overflowing 
[rebosantes]  with  democracy  as  all  the  theorists  who 


74       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


hear  the  cock  crow  and  know  not  whence  ;  but  each 
of  us  began  to  see  that  this  people  is  of  those  that 
know  nothing  else  than  to  fawn  upon  [encaramdrsele] 
the  man  who  treats  them  with  a  certain  gentleness 
[dulzura].  Here  in  this  Palace  we  have  proved  the 
truth  of  the  proverb  which  says  :  "  He  who  is  of 
honey  will  be  eaten  by  the  flies."  ' 

4  And,  General,  surely  that  is  why  you  thought  that 
it  was  best  to  rule  with  a  cudgel '  [garrote], 

4  Or  with  the  slayer  [matona],  as  the  funny  papers 
call  the  sword  I  usually  wear  ?  ' 

While  he  was  saying  this  there  shot  from  under  his 
eyelids  one  of  those  luminous  looks  which  made 
such  an  impression  on  Mr.  Creelman. 

Then  he  concluded,  with  something  more  of 
serenity :  '  Without  having  a  firm  hand,  no  President 
will  keep  in  power  for  four  years  in  these  Latin- 
American  countries.' 

'  Seeing  that  we  are  such  intimate  friends,  would 
it  be  possible  for  you  to  tell  me  with  entire  frankness, 
with  that  frankness  which  you  have  employed  in  this 
interesting  conversation,  whether  it  is  true  that  you 
desire  to  be  re-elected  for  the  period  1910-16,  despite 
the  fact  that  you  begin  it  with  more  than  eighty  years 
upon  you,  an  age  which  some  imagine  to  be  incom- 
patible with  the  delicate  business  of  governing  a 
nation  ?  ' 

'  I  will  tell  you,  Don  Pancho,  that  I  hardly  ever 
speak  the  truth  to  friends  or  others  when  they  ask 
me  questions  about  things  I  look  upon  as  com- 
promising [que  considero  comprometedoras] ;  but  this 
time  I  assure  you  that  I  am  speaking  with  entire 
sincerity,  because  you  are  my  old  friend,  because  I 
know  you  are  discreet  and  because  I  feel  the 
necessity  of  throwing  off  the  burden  of  this  reticence 


WHEN  DON  PORFIRIO  WAS  CANDID  75 


which  I  have  had  to  keep  within  me  during  more  than 
thirty  years,  while  I  have  had  this  Government 
beneath  my  sway.  Very  well,  yes — only  those  who 
are  very  short-sighted  [muy  meopes]  cannot  see  that 
I  consider  this  position  as  my  inseparable  comrade. 
I  shall  be  very  old  next  year,  and  older  still  in  the 
year  that  will  follow.  Even  now  I  can  scarcely  hold 
myself  erect  [erguirme]  in  front  of  certain  people  who 
must  see  me  whole  and  strong.  God  knows  the 
trouble  which  I  go  to  so  as  not  to  give  my  hand  to  be 
squeezed  and  to  prevent  a  groan  escaping  me  each 
time  I  put  myself  to  some  unusual  exertion.  If  they 
do  not  re-elect  me,  a  thing  which  has  not  passed 
through  my  imagination,  not  even  as  a  dream,  I 
should  die  the  next  month,  because  power  has  become 
my  second  nature.  I  shall  enter  the  Palace  faltering 
[gateando,  lit.  walking  like  a  cat],  but  I  shall  enter  at 
the  age  of  eighty  years  just  as  I  shall  enter  at  the 
age  of  ninety-two,  which  is  the  maximum  age  I 
promise  myself,  according  to  the  strength  of  will  I 
feel  within  me  and  the  calculation  which  I  make  in 
order  to  preserve  my  best  faculties,  which  are  the 
energy  to  defeat  obstacles  and  the  good  eye  to  choose 
my  servants.' 

'  So  that  you  are  already  thinking  of  an  election 
after  that  one  organised  for  1910  ?  ' 

'  I  am  thinking  of  all  those  that  can  follow  while 
I  preserve  an  atom  of  life,  and  I  found  myself  on  this 
that  nobody  attempts  to  let  me  go  [pretende  dejarme  ir] 
and  for  no  other  reason  than  that  everyone  is  horribly 
afraid  of  the  man  who  may  come,  and,  so  that  there 
may  not  come  another  whom  they  know  not  of, 
neither  the  Mexicans  nor  the  foreigners  allow  me  to 
go  ;  and  as  I  want  to  go  just  as  little,  the  result  is 
that  my  re-elections  must  be  indefinite.    Inquire  of 


76       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


anyone,  with  the  exception  of  some  few  who  have 
ambitions  such  as  Zuniga  y  Miranda,1  ask  any 
Mexican  or  foreigner  there  in  the  street  if  he  does  not 
wish  that  I  should  convert  myself  into  another 
Jupiter,  and  they  would — I  know  it — answer  you  that 
they  would  like  me  to  become  immortaL  Why  ? 
Because  although  I  do  not  give  them  all  those 
frivolities  [fruslerias]  that  they  call  public  liberties, 
I  keep  the  peace  for  them,  the  friendship  with  other 
nations,  and  a  regime  which  is  neither  Republic  nor 
Monarchy,  but  which  is  useful  to  many  people  of  your 
acquaintance;  they  make  their  harvest,  and  those 
who  live  on  the  budget  have  security  for  to-morrow's 
bread  and  the  others  can  work  in  tranquillity.  They 
throw  it  in  my  face,  these  few  politicians,  I  know  it 
well,  that  I  drown  the  aspirations  of  talented  youths, 
that  I  let  no  one  rise  up,  not  so  much  as  raise  his  head 
to  put  me  in  the  shade,  that  with  this  peace  it  seems 
a  shame  that  orators  cannot  surpass  themselves,  nor 
literary  men,  nor  politicians,  nor  any  of  the  intellec- 
tuals of  any  profession,  because  I  do  not  give  them 
a  theatre  in  which  they  can  shine,  because  I  have 
converted  the  legislators  into  mutes  and  the  Press  I 
have  put  in  a  bag  [en  la  picota].  .  .  .  And  what  ? 
What  is  the  value  of  this  weight  in  the  balance  when, 
on  the  other  side,  there  is  the  whole  nation  developing 
itself,  progressing,  making  itself  strong  to  assure  its 
autonomy  in  the  future,  and  for  a  life  perhaps  full 
of  the  grandest  prosperity  ?  ' 

'  I  must  praise  again  the  candour  with  which  you 
are  speaking,  dear  General.  It  is  for  me  a  novel  and 
complete  revelation,  this  mass  of  ideas  that  you  have 

1  A  gentleman  interested  in  astronomy.  His  candidature,  many- 
years  ago,  was  not  taken  seriously.  And  to-day  the  playful  under- 
graduates are  fond  of  calling  him  '  Mr.  President. ' — H.  B. 


WHEN  DON  PORFIRIO  WAS  CANDID  77 


been  exposing  for  me,  because  I  see  behind  them  an 
entire  system  of  Government  which  I  did  not  believe 
you  had  so  well  considered.  Now  I  am  going  to  allow 
myself  to  ask  you  a  question  :  When  do  you  think 
that  the  people  will  be  ready  for  democracy — that  is, 
to  change  the  personnel  of  its  Government  at  every 
electoral  period,  without  fear  of  economic  and  political 
upheavals  ?  ' 

'  Those  who  come  after  us  will  know.  As  far  as  I 
-am  concerned,  democracy  did  not  suit  me,  and 
therefore  I  suppressed  it  totally.  It  is  easier  to 
govern  an  idiot  people  [un  pueblo  idiota]  which  does 
not  know  how  to  elect,  than  whosoever  mingles  in 
elections,  because,  even  counting  with  the  majority, 
there  always  remain  discontented  fractions  among 
those  who  are  beaten.  When  there  are  no  votes  there 
are  no  victors  and  no  conquered,  and  that  is  why  I 
have  been  able  to  keep  myself  in  power  for  so  long, 
because  this  is  a  Republic  which  does  not  vote,  does 
not  know  how  to  fight  [luchar],  which  has  no  candi- 
dates, which  has  left  everything  to  me  as  readily  as 
one  gives  other  folk  a  troublesome  burden.' 

4  Is  it  a  fact,  Mr.  President,  that  you  believe  that 
the  middle  class  is  the  fountain  from  which  democracy 
is  to  be  hoped  for  ?  - 

4  In  the  first  place,  I  will  tell  you  that  I  do  not 
believe  that  democracy  exists  or  can  exist  among  us, 
and  the  reason  is  that  we  have  no  one  who  hankers 
for  it,  save  a  person  here  and  there.  Everyone  who 
has  what  he  wants  flings  democracy  to  the  devil.  And 
as  far  as  concerns  the  classes  which  compose  society,  I 
have  no  idea  that  some  of  them  are  better  than  others 
in  political  activity.  The  classes  are  three,  according 
to  what  they  say  :  the  high,  the  middle  and  the  low. 
Well  now,  look  here,  this  is  what  I  think  of  the  three, 


78       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


notwithstanding  that  I  have  belonged  to  all  of  them. 
The  high  class  is  that  of  the  rich,  that  of  the  aristo- 
crats, and  as  they  say  that  extremes  meet,  this  one 
elbows  the  lowest  class,  having  the  same  ignorance, 
the  same  abjectness  \bajeza\  and  the  same  dull  and 
vile  [torpes  y  soeces]  passions.  Now  that  I  have  seen 
from  a  very  small  distance  [de  cerca]  all  their  hoggish- 
ness,  I  am  terrified,  knowing  that  it  is  not  there  that 
virtue  thrives,  nor  intelligence,  nor  patriotism,  nor 
anything.  All  these  people,  counting  as  they  generally 
do  on  very  great  fortunes,  which  allow  them  to  want 
for  nothing,  are  nevertheless  those  who  make  them- 
selves most  humble  to  the  men  in  power,  and  also  they 
are  those  who  know  how  to  be  the  lowest  in  their 
adulations.  Very  often  a  man  of  the  people  has  more 
dignity  than  a  millionaire,  and  in  the  bosom  of  exalted 
families  one  sees  more  horrors  than  among  the  people. 
I  repeat  that  I  have  been  struck  with  horror  as  I 
learned  of  things  that  never  had  passed  through  my 
\S imagination.  All  this  together,  the  immoral  life  of 
the  high  class,  their  absolute  ignorance  of  science  and 
the  arts,  their  idle  customs,  their  indifference  to 
politics,  their  nullity  in  every  sense,  their  incapacity 
even  to  know  what  sort  of  a  thing  is  democracy  and 
where  it  is  to  be  found.  The  low  class  has  three  layers  : 
a  lowest  one,  which  is  upon  the  mud  of  depravity  and 
misery  ;  that  which  is  a  little  higher  and  is  formed 
of  the  poor  artisans  who  are  equally  vicious  and  do 
not  know  of  any  government  except  that  of  their 
employers  who  pay  them  for  their  work  and  punish 
them  when  they  do  not  accomplish  it ;  and  there  is 
the  class  of  the  factory  hands  who  already  know  what 
a  strike  is,  who  are  on  the  same  level  as  others  living 
on  their  own  little  occupations,  who  know  how  to 
read  newspapers  and  argue  about  public  matters,  but 


WHEN  DON  PORFIRIO  WAS  CANDID  79 


in  the  most  disorderly  fashion  [mas  desalinada],  those 
who  have  no  more  idea  that  there  is  a  Constitution 
and  that  in  conformity  with  it  they  could,  if  they 
desired,  elect  their  authorities.  And  there  remains 
for  us  that  which  they  call  the  middle  class,  which  is 
almost  entirely  suckled  on  the  treasury.  Apart  from 
artists,  shop  assistants,  heads  of  workshops  who  have 
not  got  wealthy  and  have  not  yet  passed  into  the 
aristocracy,  hairdressers,  pulque  dealers,  innkeepers 
and  sacristans,  the  rest  are  employes,  and  that  is 
where  one  really  finds  the  intellectuals,  and  I  count 
as  being  such  employes  the  men  who  are  ministers 
down  to  those  who  are  deputies  and  schoolmasters. 
Now  tell  me,  Don  Pancho,  whether  this  is  where 
[en  ese  gremio]  we  can  look  for  democracy.  In 
consequence  I  have  hoped  neither  little  nor  much, 
despite  the  assurance  of  Mr.  Creelman  that  our  people 
will  acquire  education  and  will  become  democratic, 
and  as  far  as  touches  me  it  suits  me  to  keep  them  in 
an  everlasting  statu  quo,  so  as  not  to  be  molested  with 
electoral  tickets,  which  only  those  would  use  who 
have  some  private  benefit  in  view.  Standing  as  we 
are  on  the  ground  of  sincerity,  I  confess  to  you  that 
democracy  is  of  no  more  importance  to  me  than  a 
serenado  cuerno,1  when  once  all  those  who  count  in 
this  country  are  disputing  among  themselves  for  the 
honour  of  proposing,  of  entreating,  of  begging  me  to 
go  on  in  the  Presidency,  although  many  of  them  b&e- 
their  teeth  [de  dientes  para  afuera]  and  do  it  so  as  not 
to  be  behind  the  rest,  because  they  think  they  can 
be  certain  that  I  am  an  old  and  useless  thing.  Look 
for  example  at  the  personages  who  have  formed  the 
aristocratic  re-electionist  club  in  which  there  are 

*  A  term  of  contempt,  which  at  any  rate  is  forcible.  Lit.  a  horn 
which  has  been  left  out  over  night. — H.  B. 


80       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


more  than  a  dozen  who  would  like  to  meet  me  at  a 
dark  corner.  You  will  tell  me,  Don  Pancho,  if  those 
^.whom  they  call  6  cientificos  '  can  be  my  partisans  in 
good  faith  when  I  am  not  a  '  cientifico,'  not  even 
secretly.' 

'  So  that  if  an  opposition  party  should  be 
formed  .  .  .  ?  ' 

*  I  would  not  be  two  hours  in  flattening  it  out,1  as 
I  have  flattened  out  all  those  who  have  wanted  to  be 
hostile  to  me  in  whatsoever  form.  I  should  be  a  pretty 
fellow  to  consent  to  little  oppositions  [oposicioncillas] 
in  Congress  or  in  any  part.  At  least  in  Congress  you 
have  seen  that  as  for  those  who  have  ruffled  me  [des- 
templado]  a  little,  I  have  taken  their  seats  away  from 
them,  and  if  some  of  them  have  come  back  it  is 
because  they  have  come  to  offer  me,  almost  on  their 
knees,  together  with  repentance,  the  most  absolute 
obedience.  Even  these  heterogeneous  clubs  that  are 
now  being  formed,  notwithstanding  that  the  first 
thing  they  propose  is  my  re-election,  whether  they 
call  themselves  Liberals,  Democrats  or  Jews,  these 
innocent  clubs  I  do  not  let  out  of  my  sight,  because 
when  they  are  allowed  to  take  wings  some  of  them 
fly  further  than  is  convenient.  There  you  have,  as 
examples,  the  Governments  of  Juarez  and  Lerdo  who 
got  many  headaches  on  account  of  the  clubs  and  the 

1  And  if,  like  Nicholas  of  Montenegro,  he  had  settled  to  allow  an 
opposition  party,  it  is  probable  that  much  the  same  fate  would  have 
happened  to  the  leader  of  it  as  befell  M.  Radovich,  the  husband 
of  King  Nicholas'  niece,  who  has  for  years  been  kept  in  chains.  There 
is  an  island  prison  on  Lake  Scutari  which  has,  except  in  size,  a  good 
deal  of  resemblance  to  that  island  prison  of  San  J uan  de  Ulua ;  in 
the  former  I  found  only  six-and-thirty  dungeons  (all  occupied),  and 
the  prisoners  fight  not  against  tuberculosis  but  malaria.  Another 
point  in  which  these  picturesque  and  shrewd  old  gentlemen,  Porfirio 
and  Nicholas,  resemble  one  another  is  the  praise  which  has  been 
showered  on  them  by  some  ardent  lovers  of  romance,  of  heroism  and 
of  liberty.— H.  B. 


WHEN  DON  PORFIRIO  WAS  CANDID  81 


little  oppositions.  No,  Don  Pancho,  with  me  the 
politicians  either  knock  their  heads  against  each  other 
[cabrestean]  or  drown  themselves  or  remain  quiet  and 
submissive  or  they  have  to  pay  me  for  it.  With  me 
they  have  not  got  more  than  one  of  the  two  soups 
that  you  know  of.  .  .  .' 

The  General  laughed  at  his  sharpness  and  proceeded 
in  an  airy  fashion  : 

4  They  made  me  say  that  I  consented  that  one 
might  suppose  I  had  said  of  the  opposition  parties 
that  I  would  be  glad  to  see  them  formed,  as  if  people 
would  be  so  foolish  as  to  fall  into  the  trap  ;  but  as  they 
knew  me  pretty  well  it  was  only  arfew  who  were  so 
stupid.  As  a  rule,  there  is  no  one  who  opens  his  mouth 
except  in  order  to  extol  me,  to  applaud  me,  to  deify  me, 
and  all  this  is  the  result  of  my  politics,  that  permit 
everything  except  that  someone  should  attempt  to 
put  himself  in  front  of  me.  While  it  is  I  who  give 
the  orders,  there  is  not  going  to  be  any  other  but 
myself  in  the  candlestick  ;  this  is  the  only  way 
whereby  we  all  of  us  can  keep  the  feast  and  not  be 
interrupted.  Every  head  is  bending  now,  and  God 
deliver  him  who  tries  to  raise  up  his.' 

4  Would  you  cut  it  off  ?  ' 

4  There  would  be  no  help  for  it.  And  I  should  at 
once  repeat  that  good  paragraph  which  Mr.  Creelman 
supplied  me  with  and  did  it  very  well :  44  It  was 
better  that  a  little  blood  should  be  shed  that  much 
blood  should  be  saved.  The  blood  that  was  shed  was 
bad  blood,  the  blood  that  was  saved  was  good  blood  " 
— my  blood,  which  always  has  been  the  principal.' 

4  And  is  it  a  fact  that  you  give  preference  to  the 
school  over  the  army  ?  ' 

4  That  is  what  they  made  me  say,  but  I  am  not  so 
foolish.    Neither  the  boys,  not  the  masters,  nor  my 

G 


82       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  nor  the  whole  collection 
of  books  would  help  me  to  squash  an  insurrection 
in  Guerrero  or  a  mutiny  of  the  Flores  Magon,hvhile 
with  my  soldiers  and  my  cannons  and  my  officers 
who  are  got  up  now  like  Germans,  I  can  make  the 
land  tremble,  above  all,  on  every  16th  of  September 
when  they  see  the  new  elements  of  destruction  filing 
pompously  through  the  streets  of  Mexico.  Public 
instruction  has  been  of  no  use  to  me  and  never  will 
be  ;  while  the  less  the  Mexicans  know  how  to  think 
the  more  will  they  be  inclined  to  maintain  me, 
without  suspecting,  though,  that  I  have  carried  off 
their  liberties  and  that  I  have  made  myself  their 
dictator.  The  slower  they  are  in  learning  the  longer 
they  will  leave  me  in  peace  to  govern  them,  believing 
that  I  am  the  Most  Holy  Trinity.' 

4  But  returning  to  a  point  we  omitted,  Mr.  President, 
about  the  re-election  for  the  period  after  1916,  do 
you  think  that  you  can  preserve  your  old  energy  in 
the  six  years  following  the  Centenary  ?  Formerly 
you  used  to  give  three  audiences  a  week,  and  these 
are  already  reduced  to  Mondays  only,  and  not  all  the 
Mondays ;  your  hunting-parties  are  less  frequent,  and 
in  fine,  your  application  to  business  tends  to  cause 
you  more  fatigue  every  day,  and  even  illness.  Are 
you  not  afraid  of  seeing  yourself  deprived  one  day 
or  another  of  all  participation  in  the  Government  ?  ' 

4 1  am  strong,  but  supposing  that  I  cease  to  be  so, 
the  only  thing  that  will  happen  is  that  my  secretary, 
Chousel,  will  seize  the  opportunity  to  build  another 
house  or  two,  like  that  one  he  has  already  in  the 
Colonia  Juarez1  and  my  Ministers  will  do  the  rest. 
l  That  which  matters  is  that  the  whole  world  should 
know  I  am  at  the  front  even  though  I  do  not  govern. 

1  A  fashionable  part  of  the  capital. — H.B. 


WHEN  DON  PORFIRIO  WAS  CANDID  83 


The  Mexicans  will  keep  their  fear  for  the  God  Moloch, 
and  the  outsiders  will  keep  high  our  funds.' 

6  Exactly.  I  do  not  want  to  abuse  your  kindness 
further,  General,  and  I  am  going  to  stop  now  that  the 
bombs  are  bursting  and  the  bells  out  there  have  gone 
back  to  this  ringing.  But  let  me  ask  you :  is  it  true  that 
the  Government  has  made  some  arrangement  with 
the  church  bodies  in  virtue  of  which  these  corporations 
can  break  the  Reform  Laws,  establishing  convents  on 
all  sides  and  making  public  scandals  such  as  the 
recent  coronation  at  Oaxaca  and  this  one  now  with 
the  consecration  of  the  new  archbishop  ?  ' 

'  Look  here,  Don  Pancho ;  you  must  pardon  me  if 
I  regard  your  question  as  impertinent,  and  here  are 
the  reasons  :  a  public  man,  as  you  know,  who  controls 
a  Government  like  mine  cannot  frame  contracts  of 
this  kind,  either  expressly  or  tacitly.  In  this  last 
form  perhaps  there  is  something  which  consists 
solely  in  dissimulation,  in  tolerance,  and  which  can 
also  call  itself  the  method  of  true  liberty.  So  long  as 
L-theacts  of  the  clergy  do  not  cause  harm  to  the  Govern- 
ment, why  should  they  be  stopped  ?  The  Reform 
Laws,  like  all  others,  must  be  a  little  flexible  :  one 
can  use  them,  according  to  circumstances,  by  making 
them  tighter  or  slacker.  At  the  present  it  has  been 
arranged  to  slacken  them  so  that  we  may  all  be  in 
peace.  If  it  cheers  them  up,  the  priests  and  their 
satellites,  to  crown  a  virgin  or  to  consecrate  a  new 
archbishop,  why  not  ?  Whom  do  they  harm  with 
these  innocent  entertainments  ?  .  .  .' 

They  harm  the  Liberal  creed,'  exclaimed  Don 
Pancho  as  he  roughly  interrupted  the  first  magistrate ; 
'  they  harm  the  ignorant  by  keeping  back  their  moral 
progress ;  they  harm  the  credit  of  the  whole  nation  in 
the  eyes  of  foreigners  who  think  that  we  are  forming 


84       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


here  a  people  of  fanatics1  .  .  .  and  these  same 
fanatics  grow  so  arrogant  as  to  believe  that  they  are 
governed  by  Santa- Anna  or  by  Miramon.' 
^>4Jtiiet  yourself,  my  friend,  and  above  all  consider 
what  is  the  result  of  throwing  broadcast  these  stale 
[rancias]  ideas  which  are  out  of  harmony  with  the 
present  age  of  evolution.  Nowadays  the  men  of 
science,  the  really  clever  men,  are  laughing  at  our 
old  Jacobitism  which  has  become  inadequate  in  face 
of  modern  methods  of  experimentation.  .  . 

Don  Pancho  opened  his  eyes  enormously  and  fixed 
them  in  terror  on  the  President,  saying  at  the  same 
time  to  himself — he  was  amazed  :  6  But  is  this  the 
same  Porfirio  whom  I  have  known  for  more  than 
sixty  years  ?  ' 

1  We  may  note  that  certain  foreigners  were  not  repelled  by  this  fanati- 
cism. On  the  contrary — and  as  an  illustration  of  their  enterprise,  if 
nothing  else,  we  have  Lord  Cowdray's  firm  which  tried  to  float  upon 
the  top  of  the  fanatic  wave.  Three  or  four  years  ago  they  brought  a 
mighty  poster  out,  adjuring  Mexicans  to  use  their  oil,  and  saying  that 
His  Holiness  the  Pope  advised  this  course  of  conduct.  When  that 
poster  came  into  the  hands  of  the  '  Petroleum  World'  of  London  they 
addressed  it  to  an  influential  and  trustworthy  correspondent  at  the 
Vatican.  Perhaps  in  Mexico  it  had  been  some  small  parish  priest  who 
told  his  congregation  that  he  liked  this  oil  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
perhaps  it  was  not  so ;  but  what  is  certain  is  that  from  the  Vatican 
came  the  reply  one  would  expect,  which  poured  cold  water  on  the 
troubling  oil. 

However  I  would  not  suggest  that  business  and  religion  should  be 
strictly  kept  apart.  There  is,  in  Mexico  again,  the  case  of  Mr.  Stilwell, 
a  most  ardent  Christian  Scientist,  who  is  constructing  a  great  railway 
down  from  Kansas  City  to  the  State  of  Sinaloa.  He  is  in  the  habit  of 
conducting  parties  of  Americans  and  other  magnates  through  the 
country,  and  when  they  are  sitting  round  him  in  his  private  car  he 
will  discourse  upon  the  future  of  his  railway  very  glowingly  and  after- 
wards give  very  lucid  answers  to  financial  problems.  After  this  he 
gives  them  each  a  book  of  Christian  Science  hymns,  and  with  his 
secretary  playing  the  harmonium  he  leads  the  voices  ;  and  it  is 
delicious  when  those  corpulent  old  gentlemen  take  from  their  mouths 
the  fat  cigars  and  warble.  Sometimes  one  of  them  at  the  conclusion 
of  a  hymn  or  even,  prematurely,  of  a  verse,  will  have  financial  doubts 
as  to  the  railways.  He  will  ask  a  question  and  he  will  be  satisfactorily 
answered.  Then  the  singing  is  resumed.  .  .  .  Unfortunately,  since  I 
wrote  these  words,  the  railway  has  gone  into  liquidation. — H.  B. 


WHEN  DON  PORFIRIO  WAS  CANDID  85 


The  President  continued  quietly  : 

'  We  have  no  pact  whatever  with  the  clergy. 
We  let  them  pray,  we  let  them  build  and  decorate 
their  temples,  we  let  them  foster  clandestine  associa- 
tions, we  let  them  peal  their  bells  and  make  some 
processions  so  long  as  they  do  not  interfere  in  any 
way  with  us,  except  if  it  is  to  preach  a  blood-curdling 
sermon  or  so  in  exchange  for  the  gory  articles  that 
the  Liberal  sheets  devote  to  them.' 

4  But  also  they  are  heaping  up  treasure — a  menace 
for  the  future.' 

'  There  will  be  someone  there  who  will  compel  them 
to  disgorge  again  '  [la  segunda  desamortizaciori]. 

And  as  the  President  arose  to  stretch  his  hand  out 
to  one  of  his  Secretaries  of  State  who  had  arrived  by 
appointment,  the  interview  concluded.  As  Don 
Pancho  left  the  room  he  stumbled  against  the  door 
and  against  the  adjutants,  and  presently  his  pointed 
silhouette  vanished  .  .  .  into  the  distance. 


CHAPTER  IV 


PORFIRIAN  JUSTICE 
I 

It  may  sometimes  be  bad  business  if  you  kill  a  man. 
Well,  I  have  written  all  that  sentence  very  carefully  ; 
one  has  to  be  so  careful  when  one  writes  of  Mexico. 
For  instance,  there  appeared  a  rather  scathing  book 
which  dealt  with  one  particular  division  of  the  country. 
I  do  not  say  the  book  was  free  from  all  sensationalism 
or  from  all  exaggeration,  neither  can  I  say  that  I  am 
a  complete  admirer  of  the  tone  of  it.  Still  there 
was  truth,  and  damning  truth,  on  many  of  the  pages, 
but  a  Mexican  who  lived  for  years  in  England  was 
disgusted.  He  denounced  the  book  as  being  so  much 
libel,  garbage,  treachery  and  malice.  He  was  on  the 
point  of  writing  to  the  papers  so  that  nobody  in 
England  should  believe  a  word  of  what  this  book 
contained,  because  there  was  a  sentence  in  it  saying 
that  the  President  attired  himself  in  plain  blue  serge. 
But  fortunately  this  good  patriot  desisted.  He  did 
nothing  more  than  tell  to  all  and  sundry  that  the 
book  was  quite  untrue  and  that  he  was  prevented 
by  official  prudence  from  displaying  in  the  papers 
how  absurd  it  was.  I  shall  attempt  to  be  meticulous. 
Of  course,  if  a  mistake  should  be  discovered  in  this 
chapter,  I  might  avail  myself  of  the  argumentum  ad 
hominem  and  an  example  which  occurs  to  me  is  that 

86 


PORFIRIAN  JUSTICE 


87 


of  Valladolid.  But  this  I  will  not  do.  I  will  believe 
what  I  was  told  by  the  Porfirian  authorities  ;  they 
said  that  of  their  soldiers  eight  were  killed  by  the 
insurgents  of  the  frontier-town.  Some  thirteen 
carts  were  needed  for  the  Government's  dead  servants; 
but  no  matter — I  will  be  as  accurate  as  in  me  lies. 
And  having  said  that  it  may  sometimes  be  bad 
business  if  you  kill  a  man,  I  am  prepared  to  give  the 
figures  :  it  is  bad  sometimes  to  the  extent  of  rather 
more  than  forty  dollars  Mexican.  This  is  the  price 
you  will  have  paid,  and  one  must  calculate  the  interest 
on  capital.  At  other  times  a  man  is  quoted  at  a  price 
much  higher,  but  I  am  not  going  to  be  sensational. 
What  Pancha  Robles  usually  pays  at  Tuxtepec  is 
forty  dollars,  and  she  sells  the  contract-labourers, 
the  enganchados,  more  or  less  at  sixty-five  dollars, 
delivered  in  the  hacienda.  She  is  thoroughly  notorious, 
a  woman  who  engages  in  this  lamentable  traffic. 
Agents  whom  she  has  in  the  large  cities  go  about 
collecting  people,  and  if  there  should  be  a  shortage  it 
is  made  up  in  the  gaol  of  Tuxtepec,  which  like  the 
other  gaols  of  Mexico  one  enters  with  a  fatal  ease. 
Of  course,  the  contract  does  not  mention  that  the 
men  are  sold  for  life,  but  when  the  six  months  period 
is  over  they  are  usually  well  in  debt  and  may  not 
leave  before  it  has  been  paid.  A  hacendado,  with  a 
shrugging  of  the  shoulders,  will  deplore  his  country- 
men's improvidence.  As  owner  of  a  reputable  hacienda 
he  could  not  have  tolerated  any  of  the  dirty  clothes 
in  which  the  slave  arrived  ;  he  gave  him  others — at  a 
certain  price — and  these  were  of  such  good,  enduring 
stuff  that  very  often  one  could  sell  them — at  the  same 
fair  price — to  four  or  five  or  six  successive  slaves. 
Thus  would  the  debt  begin  ;  a  man  should  really  take 
more  trouble  to  arrive  with  decent  clothes.  The 


88       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


hacendado  who  is  called  Don  Jose  Sanchez  Ramos 
has  a  manager  defective  in  the  science  of  arithmetic. 
The  workmen  are  obtained,  at  fifty  cents  a  day,  from 
villages  about  El  Faro.  When  the  week  is  done  they 
ask  for  six  times  fifty  cents.  The  manager  reminds 
them  with  a  curse  that  ere  they  came  they  had  two 
dollars;  with  another  curse  he  says  that  nothing  else 
is  due,  and  if  they  will  not  work,  the  hacienda  will  be 
made  unpleasant  for  them.  These  practices,  I  have 
been  told,  did  not  prevail  a  little  time  ago  when 
Senor  Ramos  had  the  President  of  the  Republic  as  a 
partner,  but  there  is  just  now  some  difficulty  in 
securing  workmen  for  El  Faro,  and  if  the  officials  of 
the  villages  did  not  oblige  the  people  to  present 
themselves,  a  myriad  of  coffee  plants  would  go  to 
rack  and  ruin.  Should  a  labourer  escape,  he  has  to 
pay  the  sum  of  fifty  cents  a  day  for  each  of  the 
policemen  who  pursue  and  catch  him.  So  the  debt  is 
always  mounting  up.  The  slave  may  not  be  sold  for 
life,  but  when  he  is  allowed  to  leave  there  is  not,  as  a 
rule,  much  life  left  in  him — I  have  been  inside  the 
hospital  at  Tuxtepec.  An  enganchado  from  the 
capital,  I  readily  admit,  is  not  among  the  most  robust ; 
he  has  been  undermined  by  pulque1  and  disease. 
Nor  do  the  two  small  cups  of  aguardiente  every  day 
(their  value  is  a  little  under  two  cents  each,  and  he 
pays  six)  improve  his  health.  The  diet  is  frijoles  and 
tortillas.  There  are  folk  in  Mexico  who  tell  you  with 
considerable  indignation  that  it  is  a  curse  when 
tourists  bribe  an  editor  to  put  their  articles  into  his 

1  An  alcoholic  liquor  which  is  got,  all  over  Mexico's  high  central 
plateau,  from  a  cactus.  It  is  said  to  taste  like  sour  buttermilk  and 
certainly  it  smells  like  nothing  else,  but  is  consumed  in  frightful 
quantities.  Another  beverage,  procured  in  certain  parts  of  the  States 
by  roasting  cactus  roots  and  leaves,  is  mescal.  The  late  governor  of 
Sinaloa  told  me  that  his  first  (and  last)  year  of  office  saw  188  murders 
— the  total  population  is  296,701 — and  mescal  is  the  common  cause. 


PORFIRIAN  JUSTICE 


89 


magazine  ;  they  rush  through  the  Republic  and  are 
so  misguided  as  to  talk  of  the  employers  who  provide 
no  sustenance  but  beans  (frijoles)  and  small  cakes  of 
corn  (tortillas).  If  the  tourist  were  to  live,  as  they 
have  done,  for  twenty  years  in  Mexico,  perhaps  then 
he  would  come  to  know  that  grouse  and  salmon  are 
not  what  the  lower  classes  look  for.  Beans  and  corn 
cakes  are  the  dishes  of  the  great  majority — what 
would  you  more  ?  I  would,  for  my  part,  like  to  have 
the  beans  in  a  condition  not  so  adamantine,  and  the 
tortillas  likewise  would  be  far  less  formidable  if  they 
were  not  nearly  raw.  '  It  makes  me  sick,'  said  an 
American  to  me,  4  yes,  sick  when  I  am  reading  all  that 
nonsense  of  frijoles  and  tortillas.    I  can  stand  a  lot, 

but  really  '    Well,  I  do  not  know  if  he  had  seen 

the  kind  of  women  who  are  set  to  make  tortillas,  each 
one  for  a  dozen  enganchados.  From  their  looks  you 
would  imagine  that  they  never  have  been  anything 
but  sick  ;  a  few  of  them  are  on  the  eve  of  motherhood, 
not  one  of  them  has  strength  enough  to  break  the 
corn.  So  it  would  not  require  a  connoisseur  to  see 
that  even  six  months  has  reduced  the  enganchado's 
value  to  a  sum  far  less  than  sixty-five  dollars,  while 
the  rustics  who  have  been  retained  for  various  weeks 
at  the  plantation  of  El  Faro  could,  one  fancies, 
hardly  get  the  manager  to  promise  them  a  larger  sum 
than  thirty-five  cents  daily  if  they  were  to  stop. 
But  when  the  enganchados  march  away  from  Tuxtepec, 
with  Pancha  Robles  riding  near  them  and  a  pistol  at 
her  side,  she  probably  is  thinking  that  it  is  a  good 
investment,  and  she  must  have  been  annoyed  at 
losing  seven  whom  her  son  was  taking  to  the  hacienda 
of  a  Spaniard  or  a  Mexican.  He  killed  them — bang 
went  seven  times  forty  dollars  and  the  interest  on 
capital.    Moreover,  when  young  Robles  had  been 


90       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


unmolested  by  the  judge  of  first  instance  he  was  put 
in  prison  at  the  order  of  the  jefe,  and  he  is  in  prison 
at  this  moment.  Pancha  was  away  on  business 
when  I  called  ;  and  the  attractive  woman  with  the 
brilliant  eyes,  who  is  her  housekeeper,  invited  me  to 
wait  until  the  evening  of  that  day.  Herself  she  walked 
across  the  leafy  road  towards  another  house,  picked 
up  a  pig  and  took  it  in  with  her,  while  I  was  at  the 
window  of  the  modest  house  of  Pancha,  looking  through 
the  iron  bars.  There  is  not  much  to  see  :  at  one  side 
of  the  room  is  nothing,  at  the  other  side  a  humble  bed 
around  which,  on  the  wall,  are  hung  a  scarlet  box,  a 
bunch  of  telegrams,  an  English  shooting-cap.  There 
is  a  little  shelf  above  the  bed,  and  there,  illuminated 
by  a  flame  which  dances  on  a  saucer  full  of  oil,  one  sees 
a  picture  taken  from  an  illustrated  paper.  I  am 
anxious,  as  I  said,  to  stick  meticulously  to  the  facts, 
and  if  the  picture  is  not  one  of  '  The  Good  Shepherd ' 
— I  am  too  short-sighted  to  be  positive — it  represents 
a  bishop  with  his  crosier  and  a  flock  of  sheep.  Ah, 
Pancha  mia  ! 

At  this  point  I  will  assume  that  he  who  reads  this 
chapter  cannot  tolerate  me  anymore.  'Fancy  making  all 
this  bother,'  he  exclaims,  1  about  the  town  of  Tuxtepec 
and  its  vicinity.1  As  if  one  could  not  find  an  evil  spot 
in  every  land  !  How  can  I  write  on  justice,  I  that  am 
unjust  ?  There  is  no  difference  between  me  and  those 
wretched  people  who  for  some  dark  purpose  have 
invented  lies  about  the  country,  saying  that  the  Press 
enjoyed  no  freedom,  that  there  were  no  juries.  All 
these  statements  have  been  utterly  denied,  and  it 
may  be  that  any  others  would  have  been  denied  by 
the  sagacious  Council  of  Administration  of  the 
American  Colony,  assembled  in  the  club-room  of  the 
1  Herald.'    They  assembled  there  perhaps  because 


Peasants  in  the  State  of  Veracruz. 


Half-an-hour  before  execution. 


The  camera  had  to  be  held  under  the  photographer's  coat,  and 
he  only  succeeded  in  snap-shotting  three  of  the  five  men. 


PORFIRIAN  JUSTICE  91 

there  was  no  other  room  available.  But  I  protest 
that  it  was  cruel.  We  might  just  as  well  meet  in  the 
dungeon  of  a  prisoner  and  talk  so  gaily  of  the  freedom 
of  the  world.  'Tis  said  that  money  talks  ;  1500 
dollars,  I  believe,  were  laid  each  month  upon  the 
4  Herald's  '  pen — I  hope  they  will  excuse  me  if  it  was 
2000.  And  I  am  so  grieved  to  have  to  contradict  the 
Council  of  Administration,  but  there  really  were  no 
juries  anywhere  in  Mexico  save  in  the  Federal  District. 
I  thank  God  that  Mexico  is  not  entirely  destitute  of 
juries,  for  the  Council  and  myself  have  something  still 
in  common — I  can  utterly  deny  the  statement  that 
there  were  no  juries.  Yet  the  subject  is  of  small 
importance,  as  it  happened  very  often  that  there  was 
no  trial.  Those  two  who  were  dealt  with  in  Colima, 
for  example — what  was  it  to  them  if  juries  or  no 
juries  throve  in  the  so-called  Republic  ?  Having 
been  suspected  of  a  crime  their  house  was  entered  by 
gendarmerie  and  one  of  them  was  in  the  kitchen  when 
they  slew  him,  while  the  other  citizen  succeeded  in 
escaping  to  the  church.  He  begged  the  priest  to  save 
him,  but  gendarmerie  arrived  and  shot  him  straight- 
way through  the  head.  Police  in  other  countries 
have  been  guilty  of  excess  of  zeal,  but  here  the  Gover- 
nor of  Colima  shielded  them,  and  if  the  priest  had  not 
moved  heaven  and  earth  the  jefe  would  not  have 
received  his  punishment  of  eighteen  months  in  prison. 
But  I  am  unjust  again.  It  is  so  easy  in  a  land  the  size 
of  Mexico  to  find  some  evil  spots,  if  one  goes  search- 
ing here  and  there  and  everywhere  !  Yes,  that  is  true  ; 
I  will  return  to  Tuxtepec.  There,  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, five  men  suspected  of  the  crime  of  theft  were 
shot,  nor  was  it  long  ago.  The  trial  took  place  on  the 
previous  day,  when  they  were  hung  up  by  a  certain 
portion  of  their  bodies,  in  the  hope  that  they  would 


92       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


satisfy  the  jefes  conscience  and  confess.1  You  will 
declare  that  I  am  merely  putting  down  a  series  of 
abominations,  with  no  object  other  than  a  sordid  one, 
and  if  it  be  conceded  that  my  object  has  a  different 
character — oh,  surely,  surely,  it  is  a  mistaken  object, 
for  the  Government  of  Mexico  was  doing  what  it 
could  to  set  its  house  in  order.  That  is  what  they  said, 
and  who  am  I  that  I  should  disbelieve  them  ?  For 
the  moment  it  was  necessary  to  hang  up  a  lot  of  people 
(I  give  verse  and  chapter  elsewhere),  to  suspend  them 
by  their  thumbs,  etc.,  since  they  were  obstinate  with 
their  confessions.  But  one  should  have  the  politeness 
to  believe  a  Government  if  it  is  civilised.  Yes,  then 
I  might,  I  would  at  all  events  have  made  an  effort  to 
believe.  It  was  a  Government  of  force.  Themselves 
they  did  not  make  the  slightest  effort  to  induce  us  to 
believe  that  they  were  anything  more  modern.  Those 
eight  soldiers  who  were  killed,  as  we  have  mentioned, 
in  the  Valladolid  battle,  are  a  proof,  because  the  State 
acquired  their  rifles  from  the  Federal  Government. 
These  rifles  numbered  ninety-six,  and  who  will  say 
that  such  a  Government  did  not  arm  its  retainers  to 
the  teeth  ? 


II 

Let  us  begin  at  the  beginning.  Over  those  who  sit  in 
justice  was  the  Minister  of  Justice,  one  Fernandez, 
uncle  to  the  wife  of  Don  Porfirio.  Far  be  it  from  me  to 
insinuate  that  in  a  flock  of  white  sheep  he  was  black 
or  grey.  No ;  on  the  contrary,  he  was  a  most  affec- 
tionate old  man  who  had  forgotten  totally  that  he 

1  It  will  be  seen  upon  the  photograph  that  two  or  three  musicians 
were  included  in  the  shooting  party.  'Pompa  mortis, '  says  Bacon, 
'  magis  terret  quam  mors  ipsa.' 


g 

ft  -2 


O  « 
o  "2 


PORFIRIAN  JUSTICE 


93 


was  Justice.  And  it  would  be  ludicrous  to  lay  the 
Pita  question  or  a  hundred  other  questions  at  his  door. 
'Tis  true  that  he  made  the  report  on  those  who  were 
condemned  to  death,  which  does  not  mean  the 
murderers,  but  still  a  goodly  number  of  the  population. 
Then  the  President  considered  his  report,  and  from 
the  tenor  of  it,  I  presume,  gave  out  the  final  sentence. 
In  this  life  of  ours  there  is  no  weapon  that  is  half  as 
strong  as  luck — you  would  perceive  the  truth  of  this 
supposing  that  your  life  depended  on  the  words  of  one 
who  babbles,  who  does  not  remember  that  there  are 
such  things  as  words.  But,  bless  you,  he  would  not 
hurt  a  lamb.  .  .  .  This  Pita  was  a  pretty  fellow, 
who  was  not  so  much  oppressed  by  multifarious  duties 
— he  was  Jefe  Politico  at  Puebla — but  that  he  could 
ride  a  hobby  which  is  taken  from  the  ways  of  Rome. 
We  have  forgotten  many  things  we  learned  at  school, 
but  Pita  had  remembered  beautifully  how  the  Romans 
used  to  farm  their  taxes  ;  and  he  paid  the  Govern- 
ment of  Puebla  certain  pesos  every  year  so  that  he 
might  collect  and  keep  the  fines.  He  also  was  the 
person  who  inflicted  them,  and  it  would  seem  that  the 
Poblanos  were  addicted  much  to  finable  offences, 
since  whatever  be  the  sum  that  Pita  had  to  give  the 
Government  we  did  not  hear  of  him  lamenting  that 
the  fines  were  insufficient.  By  the  way,  some  foreigners 
might  urge  that  if  a  jefe  be  permitted  to  avail  himself 
of  this  old,  classic  system  and  he  be  unscrupulous — 
well,  well  !  to  show  that  the  position  of  a  jefe  is  not 
such  a  gold  mine,  I  have  merely  to  adduce  the 
instance  of  a  gentleman  who  went  about  among  the 
four  or  five  rich  people  of  a  Jefatura  in  Oaxaca  over 
which  the  Government  had  asked  him  to  preside. 
One  of  the  wealthy  folk,  an  English  manufacturer 
long  domiciled  in  Mexico,  was  willing  to  assist  the 


94       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


future  jefe  with  a  hundred  pesos  every  month,  another 
person  undertook  to  give  his  60  pesos,  and  in  this  way 
some  300  pesos  were  collected  in  the  district.  That 
was  not  enough ;  the  gentleman  was  forced  to  tell 
the  Government  that  he  could  not  accept  the  post 
because  the  contribution  of  the  Government  (150 
pesos)  would  but  bring  the  total  up  to  450,  while  the 
candidate  had  settled  to  refuse  the  offer  if  he  could 
not  have  500.  Clearly  he  did  not  look  forward  to 
receiving  even  50  pesos  from  the  fines,  that  peaceful 
region  of  Oaxaca  being  different  from  Puebla.  Here 
at  any  rate  we  have  a  good  example  of  the  scrupulous  : 
a  person  who  declined  an  office  rather  than  that  he 
should  be  obliged  to  be  unjust  towards  his  flock  to  the 
extent  of  50  pesos  yearly,  50  pesos  if  the  worst  should 
come  to  the  worst  and  there  be  not  a  single  finable 
offence.  Those  of  my  readers  who  have  not  been 
domiciled  in  Mexico  may  think  uncharitable  thoughts 
about  the  English  manufacturer  and  all  the  rest  who 
were  prepared  to  help  the  jefe,  in  whose  hands  the 
local  justice  would  have  been  deposited.  Of  course, 
it  is  quite  admirable  that  a  Minister  of  Justice  should 
be  dedicated  to  high  thinking  and  plain  living,  but  if 
this  ideal  had  been  carried  by  the  Government  to  an 
extreme  and  the  official  ran  the  risk  of  starving 
swiftly,  then  the  moneyed  people  of  the  neighbourhood 
would  have  been  uncharitable  had  they  let  the  tragedy 
enact  itself  before  their  eyes.  Poor  jefes  !  Sometimes 
you  would  see  one  stepping  of  his  own  desire  out  of  a 
place  of  splendour,  as  did  Primitivo  Diaz,  chief  of 
Merida's  police,  who  had  himself  transferred  from  all 
the  fascinations  of  the  capital  of  Yucatan,  because  he 
said  that  in  Progreso  he  would  have  much  more  to  do. 
And  let  me  tell  those  happy  persons  who  are  un- 
acquainted with  Progreso  that  it  is  a  settlement  of 


PORFIRIAN  JUSTICE 


95 


wooden  houses  partly  buried  in  the  raging  sand.  Far 
out  at  sea  there  will  be  one  or  two  or  several  ships,  and 
sometimes,  when  the  sea  is  fairly  calm,  the  passengers, 
or  what  is  left  of  them,  are  landed  with  the  help  of 
tugs  and  barges  in  just  under  half  a  day.  Progreso 
is  the  port  of  Yucatan.  A  great  amount  of  merchan- 
dise comes  through  the  custom-house,  and  for  a  long 
time  under  Diaz  this  amount  would  have  been  greater 
still  if,  in  the  complicated  act  of  disembarking,  it  were 
not  the  fate  of  merchandise  to  pass  through  many 
hands.  The  traders  up  in  Merida  discovered  that  a 
large — unduly  large — proportion  of  the  goods  evapo- 
rated in  the  journey  from  the  vessel  to  the  shore ;  they 
told  their  agents  at  Progreso,  but  these  people,  aided 
by  the  chief  of  the  police,  discovered  nothing.  Merida 
began  to  be  dissatisfied  with  Primitivo  ;  at  his  own 
request  he  had  been  taken  to  the  port,  and  the 
condition  of  the  port  was  worse  than  ever.  Primitivo 
was  a  clever  man,  no  doubt ;  a  man  who  could  without 
the  least  asceticism  save  a  handsome  fortune  out  of 
his  restricted  pay.  Another  Diaz — but  that  is  another 
story.  '  Primitivo's  cleverness,'  said  those  of  Merida, 
c  has  been  of  no  avail  to  us.'  6  Have  patience  for  a 
time,'  said  Primitivo ;  4 1  shall  run  the  fellows  down, 
cost  what  it  may.'  So  Merida  endeavoured  to  be 
patient,  and  he  finally  did  run  them  down,  four  of  his 
own  subordinates.  It  must  have  cost  him  dearly  in 
his  innermost  emotions  when  he  spread  abroad  the 
infamy  of  these  four  men,  since  they  were  joined  to 
him  first  by  the  link  of  being  his  subordinates  and 
secondly  because  they  were,  without  exception,  from 
his  native  province  of  Galicia.  Sundry  persons  at  the 
time  remained  dissatisfied  with  Primitivo,  saying  that 
the  stoppage  of  the  leak  had  cost  him  dearly.  But  a 
merchant,  both  in  Merida  and  London,  goes  about 


96       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


asserting  that  he  has  no  time  for  gossip  ;  a  subscrip- 
tion was  begun,  and  Primitivo  got  a  golden  watch. 
.  .  .  But  we  are  giving  way  to  gossip,  which  is  not  the 
method  for  approaching  an  austere  and  elevated 
subject.  We  committed  the  initial  fault  in  our 
assumption  that  there  could  exist  both  justice 
and  '  Porfirian '  justice,  whereas  the  special  features 
of  the  latter  which  we  have  recorded  can  most 
probably  be  matched  a  hundred  times  in  the  great 
book  of  6  Justice.'  Let  us  hope  so,  for  it  is  by  the 
digressions  from  your  cold,  inexorable,  written  justice 
that  the  soul  of  what  is  human  enters  in,  and  justice 
after  all  exists  for  human  beings.  Some  of  the 
digressions  will  be  good,  and  others,  many  others,  bad. 
The  principle  is  excellent.  And  if  in  this  account  the 
bad  digressions  have  been  given  greater  prominence  it 
certainly  is  not  because  there  are  no  good  ones. 
Justice  would  not  lay  upon  the  impresarios  of  Mexico 
the  burden  of  those  30  pesos  per  performance  which 
they  send  to  Spain.  She  is  the  Motherland,  of  course, 
and  many  of  the  pieces  are  from  Spanish  pens,  but 
it  was  infinitely  better  than  mere  justice ;  it  was 
overflowing  generosity  which  prompted  Mariscal,  a 
recent  Foreign  Minister  of  the  Republic,  to  arrange 
than  any  piece  of  Shakespeare  or  Puccini  should  make 
equal  tribute.  Some  will  say — have  said — that  by  this 
generosity  the  drama  is  not  benefited,  since  the  30 
pesos  are  a  handicap  for  struggling,  little  theatres  ; 
but  Spain  was  grateful,  and  conferred  on  Senor 
Mariscal  a  decoration.  There  we  have  an  instance 
where  there  is  more  generosity  in  '  Porfirian  '  justice 
than  in  justice.  And  if  I  have  laid  more  stress  upon 
the  questionable  phases  of  the  former  it  is  owing  to 
the  curious  and  sorry  fact,  methinks,  that  we — you,  I 
and  most  of  us — prefer  the  sorry  side  of  life.  What- 


PORFIRIAN  JUSTICE 


97 


ever  be  the  reason  for  it,  we  go  naturally  to  the  shade, 
we  have  a  greater  sympathy  with  what  is  in  the  shade. 
So  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  our  picture  is 
distorted,  since  we  have  not  paid  enough  attention 
to  the  admirable  features  of  4  Porfirian '  justice  and  of 
its  servants.  These  confess  that  they  have  imper- 
fections, and  they  sometimes  make  enormous  progress 
in  a  little  space  of  time.  For  instance,  I  was  staying 
with  a  friend  of  mine,  a  Frenchman,  in  the  capital. 
He  lost  his  cook,  to  whom  he  had  entrusted  20  pesos 
for  the  purchase  of  supplies.  And  the  police  were 
absolutely  honest,  saying  that  it  was  beyond  their 
power  to  find  the  man.  But  if  my  friend  would  point 
him  out  to  a  policeman  at  a  railway  station,  just 
as  he  was  thinking  to  escape,  then  the  policeman 
certainly  would  apprehend  the  villain.  Thus  my  friend 
will  be  excused  for  his  comparatively  low  opinion  of 
Porfirian  police.  A  few  days  later  we  were  in  the 
thick  of  insurrection  ;  those  who  came  into  the  open, 
armed  with  rifles  and  machetes,  could  be  easily 
distinguished,  but  it  did  not  seem  to  be  a  simple  task 
for  anyone  to  drag  the  hundreds  of  conspirators  into 
the  daylight.  Yet  the  Mexican  police  accomplished 
this,  and  very  rapidly.  They  settled  in  their  mind 
that  So-and-so  was  a  conspirator,  they  flung  them- 
selves into  his  house,  they  seized  the  mattress, 
galloped  off  with  it  to  the  police-station,  and  behold, 
when  they  had  ripped  the  vile  thing  open,  it  was 
always  full  of  compromising  documents.  My  friend's 
opinion  of  the  Mexican  police  was  changed  completely; 
and  we  never,  never  heard  of  one  mistake.  No  mat- 
tress which  they  ripped  was  destitute  of  documents.  A 
warning  flew  round  all  the  rebel  camp — henceforward 
mattresses  shall  not  be  utilised.  But  it  was  all  in 
vain ;    the  Mexican  police  continued  to  discover 

H 


98       MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


documents  in  every  mattress.  .  .  .  But  I  am  not  sure 
if  by  the  piling  up  of  illustrations  I  shall  paint  a  real 
picture.  And  we  are  assuming  that  it  is  a  subject 
profitable  for  a  foreigner  to  study.  In  the  books  upon 
these  more  or  less  exotic  countries  it  appears  to  be  the 
custom  to  devote  a  chapter  to  the  glories  of  the 
pasture-land  on  which  the  beef  of  Britain  will  be 
some  day  grown,  another  chapter  to  the  glories  that 
are  hidden,  more  or  less  securely,  in  the  mines,  another 
chapter  to  the  glories  of  the  railway  that  will  soon 
return  a  dividend — a  glorious  surprise  for  those  who 
have  the  shares — another  chapter  to  the  swarthy 
rulers  of  the  country,  veritable  statesmen,  with  a 
retrospective  and  reproving  chapter  on  the  country's 
efforts,  from  the  Spanish  days,  to  rule  itself.  But 
there  is  nothing  said  about  the  4  justice '  of  the  country, 
though  the  subject  seems  to  cry  for  some  investigation. 
It  will  give  most  valuable  data  to  the  student  who 
sets  out  to  study  race-ideals.  Take,  for  instance, 
honour  as  it  is  defined  among  the  schoolboys  of 
England,  the  officers  of  Germany,  the  lawyers  of  the 
State  of  Veracruz.  From  time  to  time  this  special 
point  of  view  of  honour  clashes  with  the  country's 
justice,  and  it  is  instructive  to  observe  what  happens. 
At  Jalapa  lived  a  wealthy  man,  with  mistresses  and 
children.  He  repented  of  his  ways  and  did  the  best 
he  could  by  marrying  one  mistress.  She,  the  youthful 
mother  of  a  boy  and  girl,  had  got  a  brother  who  did 
not  concern  himself  with  these  domestic  questions 
until  he  had  legally  become  the  rich  man's  relative. 
A  lawyer — F.  Gonzalez  Mena — had  ideas  of  honour, 
and  he  inculcated  them  into  the  youth.  According 
to  his  notions  it  was  contrary  to  honour  what  the 
wealthy  man  had  done,  it  was  high  time  to  rub  away 
the  blot.  And  in  the  courtyard  of  the  ancient,  flower- 


PORFIRIAN  JUSTICE 


99 


buried  house  in  which  I  stayed,  when  I  forgot  the 
whole  world  and  its  grandeur  in  Jalapa,  he  gave 
his  disciple  shooting  lessons.  Other  people  might 
have  his  ideas  of  honour ;  that  which  merits  our 
consideration  is  the  attitude  of  Justice.  We  learn 
something  of  the  Germans'  character  from  knowing 
how  far  they  let  loose  the  hounds  of  justice  after 
an  official  has  exhibited  his  honour,  been  perhaps 
compelled  to  do  so,  in  a  ruthless  fashion.  When 
the  rich  man  had  been  murdered  and  his  widow 
had  secured  her  legal  portion  of  the  millions,  when 
the  young  man's  elongated  trial  was  concluded  and 
the  lawyer  likewise  had  secured  his  portion,  then  the 
justice  of  the  country  did  not  quarrel  with  this  lawyer's 
sense  of  honour  and  it  saw  no  reason  why  he  should  not 
be,  as  he  was  under  Don  Porfirio,  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Deputies.  .  .  .  And  so  the  study  of 'Porfirian' 
justice  may  be  profitable,  and  it  might  once  have 
been  profitable  in  the  common  meaning  of  that  word. 
Don  Abelardo's  post  of  judge  was  vacant,  for  he  could 
not  carry  out  the  Government's  instructions.  And  he 
told  me  that  the  salary  was  adequate.  Well,  they  may 
charge  me  with  excessive  optimism,  but  I  think  that  if 
the  Government  had  not  been  overturned  the  number 
of  such  vacancies  would  have  increased.  And  some- 
times there  were  opportunities  for  advocates,  if  it  should 
be  against  the  Government.  I  personally  knew  some 
independent  advocates  of  Merida,  but  these  might 
all  be  exiled  simultaneously,  and  when  a  Russian 
engineer,  at  work  upon  the  circus  cupola,  fell  out  with 
Avelino  Montes,  who  was  over  him  and  was  the 
Governor's  son-in-law,  the  post  of  advocate  was 
vacant  until  one  could  be  imported  from  the  capital. 
But  if  I  seem  to  hint  that  in  the  execution  of  his  duty, 
whether  as  a  judge  or  advocate,  a  man  was  liable  to 


100      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


interference,  if  I  have  deterred  some  enterprising, 
rather  briefless  comrade  from  the  law  in  Mexico  as  a 
profession,  I  would  duly  place  on  record  that  the 
Government  and  town  official  was,  in  the  majority  of 
cases,  screened  from  interference.  When  the  House 
of  Deputies  was  burned,  a  citizen  who  lived  beside  it 
was  prevented  from  an  interference  with  the  firemen. 
There  is  this  much  to  be  said  for  him — he  was 
impatient,  as  the  fire  brigade  had  not  been  able  to 
drive  up  for  something  like  an  hour  and  twenty-five 
minutes  ;  possibly,  too,  he  was  patriotic  and  did  not 
wish  the  house  with  all  the  archives  and  the  sacred 
Act  of  Independence  to  be  swallowed  by  the  flames. 
What  he  said  was,  6  Here  is  water.'  And  they 
threatened  him  with  Belem  if  he  interfered.  Some 
people  say  that  it  was  very  fortunate  for  Don  Porfirio 
Diaz  that  the  archives  were  destroyed,  but  if  a 
compromising  document  or  two  was  really  there  could 
he  not  have  removed  them  in  a  quiet  way  or  else 
promoted  the  custodian  to  another  office  ? 


Ill 

There  was  no  justice  in  Mexico.  I  do  not  say  there 
was  no  mercy,  for  if  you  should  haply  be  a  general  or 
a  bull-fighter  they  would  be  merciful.  Suppose  you 
found  it  needful  to  commit  a  murder,  as  did  General 
Maas,  who  in  a  suburb  of  the  capital  fired  point-blank 
at  the  unarmed  brother  of  his  mistress.  You  can 
plead  that  Maas  was  sent  to  prison  for  some  months 
and  then  was  reinstated  on  the  active  list,  maybe 
because  he  proved  himself  a  better  shot  than  most  of 
them.  You  would  have  mercy  if  you  were  a  general ; 
and  a  bull-fighter  not  long  since  killed  a  woman  on  a 


PORFIRIAN  JUSTICE 


101 


Saturday.  They  put  him  into  prison,  but  the  populace 
would  have  been  furious  if  he  had  not  appeared,  as 
advertised,  the  next  day  in  the  ring.  So  the  police 
allowed  him  leave  of  absence  for  that  afternoon  and 
he  prolonged  it  by  escaping  into  Texas.  Someone 
had  to  meet  the  charge  ;  his  brother  was  arrested  and 
examined  duly  and  found  innocent  and  set  at  liberty. 
.  .  .  God  help  you  if  you  were  a  Mexican  and  had  not 
taken  the  precaution  to  become  a  general  or  a  bull- 
fighter. 

There  was  more  justice  for  the  foreigner  than  for  the 
Mexican,  but  it  was  rather  scant.  This  may  seem 
disputable,  since  the  President  was  well  aware  that 
intervention,  not  to  speak  of  smaller  worries,  could  be 
brought  about  in  this  way.  But  if  foreigners  were 
sure  of  justice,  why  did  Inigo  Noriega  give  his  50,000 
pesos  to  the  judge  ?  He  must  have  felt  uneasy,  though 
he  is  an  influential  Spaniard  and  a  partner  of  Porfirio. 
His  method  was  denounced  in  heated  words  by  his 
opponent,  who  was  Senor  Romero  Rubio.  *  We  must 
expel  him,'  said  this  gentleman,  '  as  a  pernicious 
foreigner.'  And  Diaz  was  affected,  though  he  was  not 
then  Romero  Rubio's  son-in-law.  He  remonstrated 
with  Don  Inigo  and  learned  that  as  a  foreigner  who 
wanted  justice  (being  in  the  right)  it  had  been  neces- 
sary for  him  to  put  up  the  50,000  pesos,  as  Romero 
Rubio  had  put  up  40,000. 

There  was  no  justice  in  Mexico.  The  highest  court 
was  subject  to  the  President.  For  instance,  when  the 
owner  of  a  well-known  bar,  which  occupies  the  corner 
of  San  Juan  Letran  in  the  capital,  was  told  to  leave  his 
premises  on  which  he  had  expended  40,000  pesos,  he 
objected.  Those  who  wanted  him  to  leave  declared 
that  he  had  built  some  rooms  for  servants  on  the 
second  floor.  He  proved  by  documents  and  witnesses 


102      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


that  these  rooms  had  been  built  before  his  time,  while 
there  was  nothing  in  the  contract  which  prohibited 
such  building.  In  the  court  of  first  instance  he  was 
quite  victorious,  as  also  in  the  Superior  Tribunal. 
His  antagonists  then  took  the  case  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  Nation.  He  had  shown  his  proofs  to  the 
Superior  Tribunal,  who  had  recognised  them  ;  but  the 
Supreme  Court  said  that  they  did  not  exist.  The 
judges  said  that  he  must  leave  the  house  within  ten 
days,  but  as  it  was  so  flagrant  all  the  business  houses 
of  the  capital,  both  Mexican  and  foreign,  threatened 
to  put  up  their  shutters  for  a  day.  This  naturally 
could  not  be  permitted,  and  the  President,  while  saying 
that  he  could  not  interfere  with  justice,  promised  to 
exert  his  private  influence.  He  was  surprised  to  hear 
that  '  Chato  '  Elizaga,  his  brother-in-law,  had  spoken 
to  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court.  He  was  surprised 
that  the  Sehora  Elizaga  was  thirsting  for  the  house. 
He  said  he  would  exert  his  influence,  and  though  the 
owner  in  July  was  told  to  quit  he  made  another 
contract  in  December,  and  he  has  not  yet  been 
summoned  for  contempt  of  court. 

Where  justice  was  in  this  condition,  we  may  say 
that  it  did  not  exist.  In  China  and  Siam  we  have 
our  own  courts  for  our  countrymen.  Not  long  ago 
that  was  the  system  in  Japan,  but  then  we  showed 
our  confidence  in  the  Mikado's  justice  by  removing 
our  own  courts.  They  should  have  been  removed  to 
Mexico. 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  SOVEREIGN  STATES 

Few  readers  in  this  country  will  be  agitated  when 
they  learn  that  General  Diaz  was  unconstitutional 
and  would  not  let  the  seven-and-twenty  States  of 
Mexico  enjoy  their  lawful  liberty.  We  have  in 
England  to  concern  ourselves  with  such  a  multitude 
of  luckless  countries  that  we  really  have  no  leisure 
to  regard  the  details  when  the  pity  and  the  terror 
and  the  picturesqueness  of  them  do  not  capture  our 
attention.  Vainly  has  the  pundit  tried  to  buttonhole 
us  with  a  story  of  the  constitutional  restrictions  in 
Lorraine,  when  Macedonia  has  been  the  stage  of 
some  unspeakable  atrocity.  Could  we  attend  to 
everything  in  this  disjointed  time  we  should  be 
gravely  exercised  about  the  seven-and-twenty  States. 
Their  need  of  independence  was  withheld,  their 
Governors  were  not  elected  by  the  people,  and  their 
local  deputies — for  in  each  so-called  Free  and  Sovereign 
State  there  is  a  Congress — were  elected  by  the  Gover- 
nor, sometimes  by  the  benevolence  of  Don  Porfirio, 
and  there  they  sat  so  long  as  they  conformed  with 
Don  Porfirio' s  idea  of  parliamentary  behaviour. 
Then  Madero  wished  them  to  assert  their  quasi- 
freedom,  and  we  were  inclined  to  sail  towards  another 
subject  with  the  pious  hope  that  he  would  have  suc- 
cess. However,  to  obtain  some  notion  of  how  far  the 
sovereignty  was  scorned  it  may  be  profitable  if  we 

103 


104      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


contemplate  the  Chief  Inspector  of  Antiquities,  Don 
Leopoldo  Batres,  who  was  not  removed  until  the 
Revolution  had  been  consummated.1  He  travelled 
down  to  Uxmal,  one  of  the  sublimest  ruins,  and  with 
dynamite  blew  up  a  lovely  arch,  so  that  a  statue, 
which  was  injured  in  the  process,  could  be  extricated 
and  conveyed  to  Mexico.  His  friend,  Professor  Seler, 
who  is  German,  stands  accused  of  having  wrought 
irreparable  damage  at  Palenque,  and  we  are  assured, 
by  Batres,  that  the  matter  will  be  sifted. 

Palenque  !  seat  of  Kings  !  as  o'er  the  plain, 

Clothed  with  thick  copse,  the  traveller  toils  with  pain, 

Climbs  the  rude  mound  the  shadowy  scene  to  trace, 

He  views  in  mute  surprise  thy  desert  grace. 

At  every  step  some  palace  meets  his  eye, 

Some  figure  frowns,  some  temple  courts  the  sky. 

But  Mr.  Seler,  the  Director  of  the  School  of 
Archaeology  in  Mexico,  would  not  be  satisfied  with 
Southey's  catalogue.  In  order  to  observe  some 
paintings  he  is  said  (by  Senor  Aguirre,  who  was  on 
the  spot)  to  have  destroyed  a  portion  of  the  great 
room  of  the  palace.  And  if  it  is  urged  that  these  two 
exploits  hardly  bear  upon  the  question  of  State 
sovereignty,  the  fact  remains  that  if  the  charge 
against  the  German  savant  is  substantiated,  Don 
Benito  Lacroix,  Inspector  of  the  Monuments  of 
Chiapas,  will  be  probably  deprived  of  his  position  for 
not  having  been  a  faithful  guardian.  This  Federal 
Inspector  has,  or  is  supposed,  to  reckon  with  a  State 
Inspector,  who  was  thrust  aside,  at  any  rate  he  stood 
aside  in  these  two  cases,  just  as  in  the  realm  of 
politics  the  Governors  and  deputies  have  stood  aside 
for  Don  Porfirio.  We  have  supped  full  of  politics, 
and,  though  we  would  not  for  the  world  balk  the 

1  Then  he  came  to  Europe,  but  the  1  Monna  Lisa '  in  a  little  under 
two  months  was  reported  to  have  sailed  for  Mexico. 


THE  SOVEREIGN  STATES  105 


consideration  of  this  problem,  it  may  be  permitted  us 
to  do  so  with  an  archaeologist  as  villain. 

Take  one  of  those  pleasant  volumes  of  the  British 
poets  that  were  published  nearly  half  a  century  ago  ; 
the  chances  are  that  it  will  open  at  a  page  on  which 
there  is  a  steel  engraving  of  a  nymph  about  to  swim. 
The  pamphlets  that  have  been  devoted  to  Don 
Leopoldo  Batres  usually  open,  I  believe,  at  an 
exposure  of  the  way  in  which  he  interfered  at  Mitla. 
Some  amount  of  interference  is  quite  proper,  seeing 
that  he  is  the  chief  custodian  of  the  ancient  glories, 
just  as  Don  Porfirio  was  the  custodian  of  the  nation's 
honour.  We  would  not  be  so  pedantic  as  to  criticise 
them  always  for  an  undue  interference ;  local  bodies 
are  not  always  very  capable  and  have  not  such  a 
grasp  of  things  as  Don  Porfirio  and  Senor  Batres. 
Grasp  of  things  !  '  It  is  probable,'  said  6  El  Imparcial,' 
'  that  all  the  commission  given  to  Sanchez  [a  domestic 
servant  whom  Don  Leopoldo  sent  to  Mitla]  was  to 
gather  in  the  objects  found — this  being  the  sole  pre- 
occupation of  the  Inspector  of  Monuments.  ...  In 
the  present  case  this  is  not  only  a  question  of 
scientific  interest,  but  one  which  involves  Mexico's 
good  name.  We  therefore  hope  that,  with  all  activity 
and  energy,  steps  will  be  taken  to  avoid  the  ridicule 
that  threatens  us  and  the  loss  of  the  data  which  may 
be  obtainable  from  said  discovery.'  But  since  these 
words  appeared,  in  May,  1910,  we  have  had  no  more 
announcements  with  regard  to  the  discovery,  and  it 
must  be  inferred,  as  Mrs.  Nuttall  says,  that  '  the 
grave,  which  is  surely  that  of  a  Zapotec  high-priest 
and  ruler,  and  may  be  that  of  the  builder  of  Mitla, 
has  simply  been  plundered  by  order  of  the  Con- 
servator of  Public  Monuments,  with  the  sanction  of 
the  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction,  by  a  domestic 


106      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


who,  when  not  entrusted  with  such  archaeological 
work,  serves  at  the  table  of  the  Batres  family.'  And 
it  was  at  a  table  in  Oaxaca  that  Don  Leopoldo  said, 
by  no  means  in  a  whisper,  that  his  salary  was  such- 
and-such  a  sum,  while  he  required  an  altogether 
larger  one  to  live  in  gentlemanly  style.  I  fear  that 
those  who  overheard  him  did  not  make  the  obvious 
retort ;  he  certainly  continued  to  augment  his  in- 
come. Mrs.  Nuttall,  from  the  depths  of  her  American 
enthusiasm,  and  because  she  loves  and  understands 
the  relics  which  to  many  people  are  the  chief  thing  in 
the  two  Americas,  would  have  made  his  income  up  to 
the  desired  amount  from  her  own  pocket,  I  believe,  if 
he  would  not  again  have  listened  to  his  predatory  in- 
stincts. As  many  scientists  and  tourists  are  prepared 
to  testify,  he  was  for  years  a  wholesale  and  a  retail  mer- 
chant of  the  antiquities  of  Mexico,  such  as  the  idols  ema- 
nating from  the  Pyramids  of  Sun  and  Moon  at  San  Juan 
Teotihuacan  ;  he  has  received  payment  for  '  affording 
facilities  '  whereby  these  objects  could  be  taken  from 
the  country,  though  its  laws  forbid  their  exportation. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  it  was  this  man  who  had 
the  savage  altercation  with  the  Due  de  Loubat  at  the 
New  York  meeting  of  the  International  Congress  of 
Americanists,  where  the  latter  justly  reproached  him 
for  his  methods.  '  It  is  very  curious,'  said  an  old 
peasant  woman  of  San  Juan,  6  for  the  Senor  Batres 
has  been  working  in  the  Pyramids  and  has  got  out 
of  them  two  automobiles.'  So  the  cunning  Toltecs 
worked  in  porphyry  and  made  a  golden  breastplate 
for  their  statue  of  the  Sun,  and  with  consummate  skill 
inlaid  the  pea-green  jadeite  on  their  teeth — so  that 
Don  Leopoldo  Batres  might  maintain  his  large 
expanse  of  body.  They  have  not  contributed  with 
much  success,  it  seems,  towards  the  upkeep  of  his 


THE  SOVEREIGN  STATES 


107 


mind,  for  the  authorities  have  settled  to  reject  his 
mode  of  classifying  the  Museo  National  and  to  adopt 
the  system  urged  by  Mrs.  Nuttall.  4  It  was  my 
privilege  some  months  ago,'  she  writes, 4  to  accompany 
Bishop  Plancarte  when  he  visited  the  museum  for  the 
purpose  of  showing  me  certain  specimens  in  his  collec- 
tion, of  a  type  that  we  had  both  been  studying  and 
discussing.'  The  Bishop  of  Cuernavaca  is  the  most 
scholarly  and  distinguished  of  living  Mexican 
archaeologists.  '  To  our  profound  regret  we  found 
that  the  numbers  on  the  specimens,  which  enabled 
the  student  to  make  use  of  the  instructive  catalogue 
of  the  Plancarte  collection,  had  entirely  disappeared. 
Obliged,  for  the  purpose  of  comparative  study,  to 
refer  to  three  objects  which  Bishop  Plancarte  had 
discovered  together  in  a  single  tomb,  we  ascertained, 
after  a  prolonged  search,  that  Senor  Batres  had 
assigned  each  of  these  objects  to  a  different  locality 
and  to  a  different  civilisation  !  '  But  if  all  the  ex- 
militiamen — Don  Leopoldo  is  no  more  than  that — 
can  scarcely  be  expected  to  be  archaeologists,  they 
can,  at  any  rate,  be  reasonably  honest.  Codexes — 
illuminated  documents  of  fibre-cloth — are  now  so 
rare  as  to  possess  enormous  value.  He  disposed  of 
one,  the  codex  Sanchez  Solis,  to  the  German  Minister. 
And  if  Mexican  antiquities  were  going,  one  regrets 
that  most  of  them  were  sent  to  the  Berlin  Museum. 
Mr.  Seler,  who  appears  to  be  the  most  unworldly  of 
professors,  may  have  left  it  to  his  wife  (a  celebrated 
banker's  child,  and  Seler  was  the  tutor)  to  obtain  for 
Senor  Batres  the  Red  Eagle,  so  that  the  Museum  in 
Berlin  received  an  annual  supply  of  wonders.  But 
the  Conservator  had  been  looking  out  for  other  fields. 
To  Monsieur  Capitan,  the  representative  of  France 
at  the  Americanist  Congress  of  1910,  he  confided  that 


108      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


he  had  not  yet  received  the  Legion  of  Honour.  '  Ah, 
pensez  done  !  '  said  Monsieur  Capitan.  And  in  the 
8  Mexican  Herald  '  of  29th  June,  1911,  it  is  stated 
'  a  large  lot  of  idols  and  archaeological  specimens 
have  just  been  discovered  ready  to  be  shipped  to 
Guatemala  by  a  person  who  had  given  his  name  as 
Leopoldo  Batres.  .  .  .  The  secretary  [of  the  museum] 
began  an  investigation  at  once,  inasmuch  as  there  is 
a  strict  prohibition  against  the  sending  of  archaeologi- 
cal objects  out  of  the  Republic'  But  the  German 
colony  in  Mexico,  which  has  a  number  of  most  righteous 
merchants  who  will  not  be  gratified  with  eagles,  have 
been  ostracising  Mr.  Seler  at  the  German  Club.  And, 
by  the  way,  there  are  in  Mexico  three  scientific 
societies,  but  Leopoldo  Batres  was  not  member  of  a 
single  one.  If  he  confined  himself  to  selling  imitations 
to  the  foreigner,  his  countryfolk  would  listen  to  the 
plea  that  it  is  patriotic,  for  the  foreigner  is  human — 
sometimes  even  feminine — and  will  insist  on  the 
illicit  booty.  You  will  not  succeed  in  turning  them 
away  with  mere  soft  words,  and  it  is  patriotic,  there- 
fore, to  provide  them  with  the  imitations.  Batres  was 
supposed  to  make  these  objects  in  the  cellar  of  his 
house — 4  we  will  say  nothing  about  the  individual 
.  .  .  for  he  is  known  well  enough,'  says  1  El  Tiempo,' 
the  conservative  and  Catholic  organ,  '  as  is  also  the 
damage  he  has  done  to  the  science  of  archaeology  by 
means  of  his  proceedings,  his  ignorance  and  his 
audacity,  which  is  that  of  an  improvised  savant ' — 
but  these  imitations  have  been  known  to  find  their 
way  to  Mexico's  museums,  for  the  stranger  cannot 
always  be  deceived.  But  he  can  be  discouraged,  as 
was  Mr.  A.  P.  Maudslay,  whose  researches  in  the 
Guatemalan  field  are  so  well  known  and  valued  ; 
Mr.  Maudslay  was  unable  to  secure  permission  to 


The  Custodian  of  Monte  Alban 

With  his  machete. 


THE  SOVEREIGN  STATES  109 


investigate  the  mounds  on  Monte  Alban,  and  as  no 
domestic  servant  seems  to  have  been  willing  to  ascend 
the  mountain  it  is  left  in  peace,  and  probably  it  will 
be  left  until  a  butcher's  bill  of  one  of  Mexico's  Don 
Leopoldos  must  be  settled. 

When  he  was  accused  of  something  flagrant  he 
defended  himself  by  printing  letters  from  the  local 
guardians,  who  were  under  him  and  as  subservient  as 
were  the  Governors  to  Don  Porfirio.  In  politics  and 
archaeology  there  may  not  be  sufficient  able  men  in 
every  State  of  the  Republic,  but  the  4  one-man 
system  '  has  been  found  a  ghastly  failure.  Even  if 
Porfirio  and  Leopoldo  had  a  myriad  eyes  and  honest 
eyes  they  could  not  cope  with  all  the  country,  and 
they  stifled  everywhere  the  men  who  con  amove  would 
devote  themselves  to  these  two  occupations.  As  to 
why  the  ruins  have  been  ever  supervised  by  Batres,  no- 
body can  tell ;  his  ethnological-anthropological  books 
merely  show  his  ignorance,  and  the  reason  given  by 
some  Mexicans  (that  he  is  the  natural  son  of  Don 
Porfirio' s  late  father-in-law,  who  also  did  his  best  to 
educate  him)  is  not  adequate.  O  Reuter,  if  you  had 
but  paid  your  agent  a  more  princely  fee,  so  that  he 
had  dedicated  wholly  his  activities  to  you,  then  every 
archaeologist  would  have  bowed  low  before  you. 

And  yet  the  policy  of  riding  rough-shod  over  all 
the  separate  States  was  so  disastrous  to  the  local 
politicians,  who  were  thrown  aside,  and  in  the  end  to 
Don  Porfirio  Diaz,  who  was  also  thrown  aside,  that 
we  must  contemplate  the  subject  rather  closely. 
And  it  happened  that  in  San  Luis  I  met  a  man  who 
once  had  figured  in  the  politics  of  Yucatan.  He  is  a 
member  of  a  learned  profession,  which  he  studied 


110      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


during  several  years  in  the  United  States  and  Canada. 
Thus  he  was  able  to  relate  in  English  what  he  knew, 
and  as  the  words  fell  from  his  lips  I  give  them  here. 
'  It  is  not  totally  a  lie,'  said  he,  whereby  he  meant 
that  it  was  true,  and  it  is  more  convincing,  I  believe, 
than  are  the  vagaries  of  Leopoldo  : 

6  Foolishly  believing  the  interview  Diaz-Creelman, 
a  group  of  persons  belonging  to  the  best  families  in 
Yucatan  got  together  in  order  to  found,  how  do  you 
say  ?  to  establish — no  ? — a  political  party  with 
democratic  ideas.  This  interview  Diaz-Creelman 
that  I  have  referred  to  was  an  interview  granted  by 
President  Diaz  to  an  American  journalist,  in  which 
Diaz  expressed  himself  saying  that  he  would  dedicate 
the  last  years  of  his  life — the  last  years  of  his  life — to 
teach  the  people  of  Mexico  the  true  democracy,  and 
thought,  therefore,  that  they  would,  that  they  should, 
take  more  interest  in  politics  and  would  establish 
clubs  of  opposition  to  the  Government.  .  .  .  So,  as 
I  said,  we  established  the  Centro  Electoral  Inde- 
pendiente  ;  it  began  its  work  with  the  publication  of 
a  political  platform  that  would  have  to  be  accepted 
by  whoever  was  elected  candidate  of  the  club,  I  mean 
candidate  for  the  office  of  Governor  and  any  other 
office.  After  that  we  began  the  publication  of  a  paper 
called  "  El  Sufragio,"  and  sent  commissions  to  the 
different  towns  of  the  State  to  propagate  our  ideas 
and  establish  clubs  dependent  of  the  central  club  in 
Merida.  Two  or  three  weeks  after  the  club  was 
established  we  noted  great  enthusiasm  in  the  mass 
of  the  people  and  began  to  receive  letters — there  is  a 
word  in  Spanish — of  adhesion  ;  before  five  or  six 
months  we  had  5000  in  our  books — 5000  in  a  State  of 
300,000  inhabitants  and  where  75  per  cent  of  the 
people  do  not  know  how  to  read  nor  write.  The 


THE  SOVEREIGN  STATES 


111 


date — I  don't  remember  the  exact  date.  Well,  now ! 
all  these  works  involved  the  expenditure  of  money 
that  we  collected  among  our  friends  and  apparent 
supporters.  We  might  say  that  most  of  this  money 
was  collected  among  the  rich  classes,  that  is,  among 
the  hacendados,  in  the  haciendas,  who  some  contri- 
buted believing  in  the  exit,  I  mean  success  of  our 
campaign,  and  some  on  account  of — before  you  put 
it — on  account  of  friendly  relations  with  the  directors 
of  the  movement,  and  very  few  because  they  thought 
that — that  the  movement  would  be,  if  nothing  else, 
a  means  of  educating  the  people  in  the  true  demo- 
cratic ways — is  that  right,  is  that  the  way  to  say  it  ? 
But  you  ought  not  to  believe  that  these  farmers,  the 
hacendados,  had  the — how  do  you  say  ? — the  valor 
de  sus  ideas,  because  we  have  proofs  to  the  effect 
that  if  they  gave  us  50  pesos  they  at  the  same  time 
gave  the  Government — the  Government  party — 100. 
There  was  one  of  them  who  offered  us  1000  pesos 
under  certain  conditions  that  were  not  accepted — 
acceptable.  Everything  pointed  to  our  success ; 
there  was  great  enthusiasm  manifested  among  the 
people.  The  whole  State  seemed  to  be  with  us  when 
we  decided  to  have  a  private  election  in  the  club, 
among  all  the  people  who  had  signed  that  adhesion 
to  our  club,  in  order  to  elect  the  candidate.  Before 
this  election  was  held  we  sent  a  commission  to  inter- 
view President  Diaz  and  put  the  facts  before  him  and 
get — what  do  you  say  ? — his  reaffirmation  of  the 
interview  with  the  journalist  Creelman.  As  we  knew 
beforehand  that  the  people  had  two  or  three  names 
in  mind  for  candidate,  the  commission  told  President 
Diaz  the  names  of  these  three  men,  saying  that 
probably  our  candidate  would  be  elected  among  the 
three.   President  Diaz  answered  that  he  was  glad  to 


112      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


hear  that  the  opposition  party  was  working  with 
success  and  was  in  the  law,  that  he  knew  one  of  the 
men  who  figured  in  the  list  and  knew  him  as  a  good 
man  and  a  man  that  he  would  be  glad  to  see  elected. 
This  man  was  General  Curiel.  The  commission  came 
back  from  Mexico  and  a  splendid  reception  was  made 
to  it — no  ? — by  the  people.  There  were  about  5000 
waiting  for  them  in  Merida,  and  a  special  train  of 
twenty  cars  went  to  Progreso  to  greet  them. 

'  By  this  time  the  Yucatan  Government  had  begun 
to  hinder  us  in  all  our  movements.  All  the  members 
of  the — the  Directiva  ;  all  the  principal  officials  of  the 
club  were  followed,  day  and  night  and  openly,  by 
members  of  the  detective  force,  the  secret  police, 
I  mean.  Our  club  had  been  invaded  every  night  by 
twenty  or  twenty-five  policemen  and  two  or  three 
police  officials.  The  school  opposite  the  club  had  its 
roof  guarded  by  armed  force,  and  several  of  the  minor 
officials  of  the  club  had  been  put  in  gaol.  We  had 
reports  daily  to  the  effect  that  a  lawyer,  Amabilis,  and 
others  of  the  Government  party  had  been  looking 
over  the  criminal  records  and  looking  out  desespera- 
demente,  desperately  for  the  means  of  involving  us  in 
a  criminal  process.  Also  the  effect  that  the  Govern- 
ment, the  Yucatan  Government,  would  use  force 
against  us  if  necessary  to  make  us  abandon  our  ideas. 
Several  telegrams  were  put  to  Diaz  explaining  the 
situation.  Diaz  did  not  deign  answer  them.  Order 
of  prison  was  given  against  our  candidate — yes,  I 
tell  you — who  was  elected  by  10,000  votes  in  our 
convention.  This  candidate's  name  is  Delio  Moreno 
Canton.  We  had — how  do  you  call  ? — to  get  together 
the  officials  of  the  club  ? — in  order  to  discuss  the  best 
way  of  making  front  to  the  situation.  Somebody 
proposed,  somebody  said  that  the  only  way  of  making 


THE  SOVEREIGN  STATES  113 


front  to  armed  force,  when  all  guarantees  had  been 
apparently  suspended,  was  with  armed  force.  Nobody 
accepted  the  idea  of  what  would  be  looked  as  a 
revolution.  It  was  dangerous — nobody  was  partisan 
of  shedding  blood,  and,  even  if  everybody  had  been 
so,  there  was  no  money,  time,  nor — nor  people  expert 
in  a  movement  of  that  sort.  So  it  was  decided  unan — 
unanimously  to  keep  on  working  as  we  had  done  and 
until  it  was  materially  impossible  to  continue.  By 
this  time  Indians  from  the  farms  and  small  towns,  and 
National  Guards  were  brought  to  Merida  and  made 
to  march  into  a  parade  in  honour  of  the  Government 
candidate.  As  this  people  were  brought  by  force, 
and  most  of  them  were  partisans  of  our  candidate, 
the  results  of  the  parade  were  what  ought  to  be 
expected  :  lots  of  hurrahs  for  Delio  Moreno  Canton, 
and  mueras,  the  yell  opposite  to  hurrah,  for  So-and-so, 
mueras  for  Munoz  Aristegui.  The  night  of  this  parade 
there  were  3000  soldiers  kept  at  their  garrisons  and 
the  police  greatly  reinforced.  At  the  plaza  opposite 
the  Governor's  palace,  where  Munoz  Aristegui,  the 
Governor,  was  to  receive  the  hurrahs  and  compli- 
ments of  the  paraders,  the  scandal  became  enormous, 
and  the  members  of  the  detective  force  began  to 
strike  to  whoever  they  encountered  in  their  path.  About 
fifty  persons  were  arrested  and  condemned  in  the 
next  day  to  spend  thirty  days  in  the  Penitenciary 
as  seditious  people  and  under  only  one  witness — the 
police.  After  this  parade  matters  became  worse  for 
the  officials  and  followers  of  the  opposing  party.  Our 
sympathisers  were  imprisoned  daily  on  more  or  less 
fictitious  charges,  and  the  bomb  exploded  when  an 
accusation  was  presented  by  the  State  Attorney  to  a 
criminal  court  against  all  the  officials  and  many  of  the 
followers  for  revolutionary — let  me  think — for  con- 
i 


114      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


spiration.  More  than  a  hundred  orders  of  prison  were 
let  out,  and  those  who  could  not  escape  were  locked 
in  the  Penitenciary,  and  kept  isolated  in  some  cases 
for  more  than  sixty  days.  The  charge  was  for  a 
revolution  which  they  said  was  to  start  the  14th  of 
October  of  1909.  This  was  the  end  of  the  patriotic 
but  rather  dangerous  political  movement.  We  have 
only  to  add  that  the  principal  leaders  of  the  club  who 
appeared  in  the  criminal  proceedings  as  leaders  of 
the  revolutionary  movement  have  been  condemned 
to  two  years'  imprisonment  for  a  revolution  that 
appears  in  said  proceedings  that  was  to  be  started 
14th  of  October.  .  .  .  There  is  another  thing.  After 
having  been  from  November,  1909,  to  January,  1911, 
in  prison,  seven  of  them  were  let  out  because  the 
authorities  said  they  were  innocent.  But  they  had 
no  opportunity  of  enjoying  this  liberty,  for  at  the 
Penitenciary  door  the  police  took  them  and  arrested 
them  at  the  police-station,  and  from  there  forced  for 
five  years  into  the  army.' 


CHAPTER  VI 

PORFIRIAN  GOVERNORS 

In  Mexico  one  naturally  went  against  the  Governor. 
The  twenty-seven  States  have  each  of  them  a 
Governor,  and  so  has  the  Federal  District,  which 
answers  to  the  District  of  Columbia  in  the  United 
States.  The  power  vested  in  these  twenty-eight 
persons  is  extensive,  they  are — as  one  of  them  told  me 
— little  'kings,'  and  it  is  natural  that  many  of  them 
be  unfitted  for  a  post  of  such  importance.  Thus  one 
was  compelled  to  be  against  them.  Naturally  also 
there  were  some  exceptions.  I  know  one  who  had 
ideals  that  will  not  be  realised  outside  Utopia,  and  he 
gave  expression  to  them  in  a  language  that  can  only 
be  described  as  'decorated'  English.  Nor  must  I 
forget  another  Governor1  who  paid  a  visit  to  his 
criminals  when  they  were  on  the  eve  of  execution, 
gave  them  a  magnificent  cigar,  and  usually  educated 
their  children  at  his  own  expense.  But  many  of  the 
Governors  should  have  embarked  upon  a  different 
occupation,  not  in  every  case  the  one  which  served 
them  ere  they  rose  to  govern  States — here  I  am  think- 
ing of  the  individual  who  used  to  be  a  bandit  and  not 
even  a  moral  bandit.  They  should  have  been  removed 
immediately.     One    must    acknowledge   that  the 

1  As,  in  the  story  of  the  Revolution,  it  is  necessary  for  me  to 
include  this  Governor's  name,  let  it  be  given  a  more  honourable 
mention  here — 'tis  Don  Diego  Redo,  and  his  colleague  who  was  kind 
to  criminals  was  Don  Guillermo  de  Landa  y  Escandon. 

115 


116     MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


President  was  hampered  in  his  choice  ;  the  men  had 
seldom  undergone  a  training.  Whom  was  he  to  take  ? 
A  number  of  his  old  companions,  white-haired 
generals,  were  in  want  of  house  and  home.  Of  course, 
the  ranks  of  these  were  getting  thin.  Whom  else  was 
he  to  take  ?  Sometimes  a  gentleman  who  owned 
much  property  inside  the  State,  at  other  times  a 
gentleman  who  would  not  own  it  till  his  term  of 
office  was  concluded.  It  was  seldom  requisite  for  any 
one  of  them  to  have  to  claim  a  pension.  And  they 
were  not  wholly  wrapped  up  in  providing  for  them- 
selves :  with  several  of  them  it  was  most  advisable 
that  if  you  brought  a  lawsuit  you  should  have  their 
son  or  son-in-law  for  counsel ;  you  must  run  the 
risk  that  he  had  been  approached  by  your  opponent. 
Not  to  make  a  tedious  list  of  it  I  will  adduce  one  other 
only,  under  whose  administration  there  was  built  a 
gorgeous  clock -tower  in  the  capital  of  his  unhappy 
State.  He  had  a  nephew  who  some  years  ago  began 
to  build  this  tower  ;  he  started  by  informing  certain 
quarry-owners  that  it  would  be  patriotic  if  they 
made  the  town  a  present  of  an  adequate  supply  of 
stone.  This  celebrated  mining  town  has  got  no  water 
installation,  but  one  cannot  think  of  everything  at 
once,  and  possibly  a  clock-tower  was  essential.  Any- 
how, the  splendid  stone  was  given,  and  the  nephew 
left  it  in  the  plaza  for  a  long,  long  time,  but  possibly 
he  was  considering  between  a  multitude  of  plans. 
The  clock-tower  was  to  be  (and  is)  so  much  more 
grandiose  than  any  building  which  the  town  possesses 
that  it  could  not  be  decided  on  so  readily.  Meantime 
a  bank  was  needed,  and  the  nephew  sold  his  splendid 
stone  to  the  contractors — there  it  stands  to-day, 
below  the  shadow  of  the  clock-tower.  Then  the 
nephew  had  to  ask  the  quarry  for  a  new  supply  of 


PORFIRIAN  GOVERNORS  117 


stone,  since  he  was  being  regularly  paid  as  builder 
of  the  tower,  and  if  he  did  not  build  it,  surely  he 
would  be  dishonest.  Splendid  stone  was  brought 
into  the  plaza  and  the  building  was  begun.  For  years 
it  was  continued,  while  the  nephew  could  not  say 
when  he  would  hand  it  over.  In  the  year  of  the 
Centenary  of  Independence  it  occurred  to  General 
Diaz  that  the  tower  might  well  be  finished  for  the 
culminating  day,  the  16th  September,  and  at  all 
events  the  town  is  saving  what  it  used  to  pay  the 
nephew.  It  would  dearly  like  to  have  some  water 
in  its  houses,  but  the  uncle  has  a  pulque  hacienda,  and 
will  tell  you  that  it  is  a  wholesome  beverage.  .  .  . 
I  am  not  an  out-and-out  admirer  of  the  little  *  kings ' 
of  Mexico,  and  yet  I  thought  that  one1  of  them,  who 
spoke  to  me  with  candour  of  his  colleagues,  was  a 
man  on  whom  I  could  rely.  It  was  not  his  own  per- 
sonal integrity  that  we  discussed,  but  politics  as  they 
are  in  a  State.  He  told  me  that  the  Federal  deputies, 
those  who  sit  in  the  capital,  are  selected  by  indirect 
voting,  and  that  the  deputies  of  a  State  are  selected 
by  direct  voting.  He  gave  me  a  book  where  this  is 
to  be  found.  After  that  he  told  me  the  executive, 
the  legislature  and  the  judiciary  are  separate  and 
independent  in  each  State  ;  he,  the  executive,  was 
not  above  the  other  two — a  circumstance  which  might 
bring  complications  if  it  were  so.  Thus  I  was  unable 
to  secure  a  good  account  of  the  internal  politics  of 
his  own  State  from  this,  one  of  the  most  intelligent 
and  sympathetic  of  the  Governors.  I  shall  have  to 
try  to  give  my  own  account. 

When  somebody  became  the  Governor  of  a  State, 
the  whole  of  the  judiciary  and  the  legislature  of  his 
predecessor  was  not  called  on  to  resign,  although  the 
1  Don  Teodoro  Dehesa. 


118      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Governor  had  many  friends  who  must  be  given  some 
position.  He  would  not  be  able  to  request  the  others, 
all  of  them,  to  step  from  office — certain  ones  would 
have  the  President's  support,  and  these  could  not  be 
ousted.  Even  when  the  Governor  had  rilled  his  place 
for  many  years  he  was  not  free  from  Presidential 
interference.  There  was,  for  example,  one  young 
man  in  want  of  money  as  he  recently  had  married, 
His  father-in-law  was  one  of  the  cientiftcos,  a  great 
plunderer  ;  he  asked  the  President  to  put  the  young 
man  in  the  way  of  earning  money  since  a  husband 
should  support  his  wife.  And  so  it  happened  that  he 
was  presented  with  the  post  of  deputy — that  is,  with 
£25  a  month.  If  he  had  been  a  deputy  in  Mexico 
itself  the  sum  would  have  been  £30  ;  but,  as  it  was, 
he  took  up  the  position  in  a  State  of  which  the 
Governor  was  the  determined  foe  of  all  the  cientificos. 
The  President  had  settled  the  affair  ;  that  was  the 
end  of  it.  Apart,  though,  from  the  President,  there 
was  not  much  with  which  the  Governor  had  to 
combat.  His  predecessor's  legislature  and  judiciary 
had  set  free  many  situations  for  his  friends.  And 
then  they  settled  down  to  govern  :  the  executive, 
which  was  the  Governor,  the  legislature,  which  was 
mostly  nominated  by  the  Governor,  and  the  judiciary, 
which  was  mostly  nominated  by  the  Governor.  You 
may  recall  that  I  was  told  that  in  the  case  of  States 
the  voting  was  direct,  and  so  it  was — the  Governor 
voted. 

There  are  other  countries  just  as  backward  as  was 
Mexico  and  just  as  barbarous,  but  there  it  is  not 
customary  to  adorn  the  nakedness  in  feathers.  They 
do  not  believe  in  European  institutions,  which  may 
be  most  excellent  for  Europe,  but  will  scarcely  be 
adapted  for  all  other  continents.   Such  a  philosophy 


PORFIRIAN  GOVERNORS  119 


must  recommend  itself  to  us,  because  it  is  not  only 
wise,  but  honest.  In  the  so-called  Mexican  Republic 
there  appeared  to  be  no  doubt — no  honest  doubt — but 
that  the  European  institutions  were  to  be  imported 
wholesale.  And  a  book  is  printed  which  contains  a 
number  of  these  institutions  ;  it  is  the  book  whereby 
the  Government  of  the  Republic  is  to  be  conducted. 
Many  other  books  are  printed  which  contain  a  quan- 
tity of  these  imported  institutions  ;  these  are  for 
the  Government  of  individual  States.  I  do  not  know 
by  whom  these  books  were  studied — not,  I  think,  by 
many  people  in  the  so-called  Mexican  Republic. 
Yet  the  constitutions,  as  embodied  in  these  books, 
were  not  ignored.  It  is  the  custom  for  the  chief 
square  of  a  town  to  have  the  name  of  Plaza  de  la 
Constitution  ;  it  is  the  custom,  I  am  told,  in  drinking- 
booths  for  patriotic  peons  to  exclaim,  '  Viva  la  Con- 
stitution !  '  and  it  was  the  custom  for  their  Governor 
to  be  styled  El  Gobernador  Constitutional.  From 
time  to  time  these  constitutions  were  improved.  It 
was  a  crying  scandal  that  the  men  who  governed 
Mexico — that  is,  the  circle  which  surrounded  the  ex- 
President — should  be  the  same  as  those  who  had  a 
great  part  of  the  industries  in  their  possession.  It 
would  need  some  self-denial  for  this  group  to  put 
aside  its  opportunities.  You  can't  have  everything  ; 
this  sentiment  is  not  in  their  possession.  That  a 
member  of  the  governmental  ring  should  as  a  broker 
use  the  knowledge  he  obtained,  or  that  as  manu- 
facturer he  should  have  the  advantage  of  a  tariff  he 
obtained,  or  that  as  agriculturist  he  should  have  the 
assistance  of  an  Irrigation  Bank  he  had  been  in- 
strumental in  obtaining,  or  that  as  concession-dealer 
he  should  sell  to  foreigners  or  eke  to  Mexicans  those 
public  works  whose  building  he  obtained  by  his 


120      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


position  in  the  Government — all  these  activities 
were  unopposed  except  by  the  opinion  of  the  people, 
which,  as  readers  will  have  gathered,  was  of  quite 
exiguous  importance  in  the  so-called  Mexican  Re- 
public. But  they  passed  an  article  not  long  since  in 
a  certain  State  which  laid  it  down  that  deputies 
while  they  are  such  may  not  without  permission  of 
the  legislature  take  upon  themselves  a  public  office 
or  employment  under  Government  or  State  or  Town. 
However  useless  be  this  article,  it  showed  a  laudable 
desire.  And  yet  one  cannot  keep  oneself  from  think- 
ing that,  before  the  constitutions  had  a  series  of  new 
articles  affixed  to  them,  some  steps  should  have  been 
taken  to  enforce  the  old  ones.  In  the  constitution  of 
the  State  to  which  we  have  alluded  they  went  into 
some  refinements  on  the  voting  question.  4  The 
members  of  the  Legislature,  those  of  the  Superior 
Tribunal,  those  of  the  municipalities,  the  Governor, 
and  the  judges,  shall  be  chosen  by  the  people  in  direct 
election.  .  .  .  For  the  election  of  deputies  the  State 
shall  be  divided  into  districts  of  60,000  inhabitants. 
The  fraction  which  exceeds  30,000  shall  also  be  a 
district.  ...  In  all  kinds  of  elections  it  shall  be 
sufficient  for  a  man  to  get  a  mere  majority,  with  the 
proviso  that  in  this  majority  there  shall  be  not  less 
than  a  fourth  part  of  the  votes  which  are  recorded. 
If  no  individual  secure  so  many  votes  there  shall  in 
consequence  be  held  a  second  election  of  the  same 
rsort  as  the  first  one,  with  the  candidates  restricted 
to  those  two  who  get  the  larger  number  of  the  votes.' 
In  Puebla,  not  so  long  ago,  the  man — the  interventor — 
who  should  have  been  behind  a  table  to  receive  the 
votes  of  those  who  dwelt  inside  a  block  of  houses, 
this  official  did  not  put  in  an  appearance,  and  his  two 
subordinates,  who  were  Maderists — as  were  other  people 


PORFIRIAN  GOVERNORS  121 


in  the  block — set  out  in  search  of  him  at  nine  o'clock, 
when  he  should  have  been  sitting  at  the  table  for  an 
hour.  They  learned  that  he  was  still  in  bed.  At  ten 
o'clock,  while  he  was  breakfasting,  he  told  them  that 
he  had  resigned,  and  any  further  information  could 
be  got  from  the  authorities.  Immediately  his  visitors 
proceeded  on  their  way,  and,  after  interviewing  various 
officials,  found  that  he  had  spoken  truthfully  and  that 
he  had  indeed  resigned  at  midnight.  It  was  clear 
that  if  the  block  was  not  to  be  disfranchised  there 
should  be  no  time  lost ;  it  was  noon  instead  of  eight 
o'clock.  So,  in  default  of  interventor,  his  subordinates 
sat  down  behind  the  table,  ready  to  receive  the  votes, 
the  direct  votes  of  the  people.  After  they  had  been 
there  ten  minutes  the  interventor  appeared,  foaming 
with  rage.  They  were  usurpers,  he  shouted,  they 
were  men  of  incredible  effrontery.  After  eighteen 
minutes  came  the  jefe  politico,  and  after  thirty-five 
minutes  both  the  Maderists  were  in  prison  and  the 
table  had  been  removed.  But  Puebla,  though  a  town 
of  100,000  inhabitants,  the  seat  of  an  Archbishop,  and 
a  place  of  wealth,  was  not  the  whole  Republic.  And 
the  President  had  spoken  :  '  It  is  praiseworthy  on 
the  part  of  the  Mexican  people,'  said  he,  when  he 
opened  Congress  in  September,  1909,  4  that  they 
should  always  take  a  greater  interest  in  the  exercise 
of  their  electoral  rights.'  In  Yucatan,  300  of  the 
leaders  of  the  party  which  desired  to  vote  for  someone, 
who  was  nephew  of  a  previous  Governor  and  a  man  of 
liberal  ideas,  were  flung  into  prison.  Probably  the 
President  considered  that  the  people's  interest  should 
be  restricted  to  the  men  of  not  such  liberal  ideas,  and 
even  though  the  Governor  of  every  State  is  called 
progressive  when  you  write  of  him  or  to  him — El 
progresista  Senor  Gobernador — it  may  be  said  that 


122      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


this  is  but  a  ceremonial  epithet.  Now  we  have  given 
two  unpleasant  instances  of  that  which  overtakes 
a  voter  in  the  so-called  Mexican  Republic.  We  must 
have  the  fairness  to  adduce  a  third  example — and 
from  one  of  the  Pacific  States.  The  President  had 
also  made  the  observation  in  September,  1909,  that 
the  people's  greater  interest  '  is  necessary  for  the 
sake  of  designating  its  future  Governors  under  the 
beneficent  rule  of  peace.'  He  had  determined  who 
should  be  the  Governor,  and  on  a  certain  day  the  people 
were  electing  him.  A  citizen  of  San  Francisco,  who 
was  staying  with  the  future  Governor,  walked  round 
the  town,  which  has  no  sights  wherewith  to  entertain 
a  tourist.  He  was  therefore  suffering  from  boredom, 
and,  for  lack  of  occupation,  went  into  a  polling-room 
and  voted.  In  seven  other  polling-rooms  he  voted ; 
always,  naturally,  for  his  friend.  When  I  was 
challenged  by  a  Mexican  official  to  give  any  single 
illustration  of  the  freedom  of  a  voter  being  interfered 
with,  I  refrained  from  Puebla  and  from  Yucatan  and 
many  others,  thinking  that  this  instance  from  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific  would  be  less  offensive.  But  he 
was  indignant.  6  You  must  not  believe  it  for  a  second ! ' 
he  exclaimed.  '  No,  you  must  not  believe  it  that  they 
let  him  vote.  We  are  so  courteous.  They  would 
never  tell  him  that  he  was  ineligible.  No,  they 
certainly  would  not,  for  that  is  not  what  they  are 
wont  to  do.  But  when  he  had  withdrawn  himself 
from  each  of  those  eight  places,  then  they  took  his 
voting-paper  and  they  tore  it  into  little  pieces.'  4  But 
it  was  not  for  the  opposition  candidate,'  I  murmured. 
4  Mexicans,'  quoth  he,  4  are  very  courteous.' 

So  the  Governor  and  his  satellites  came  down  upon 
a  State.  The  process  was  not  half  as  picturesque  as 
when  the  cavalry  of  Mexico  is  going  into  other 


Olive  trees  at  Tzintzuntzan. 


They  were  planted  by  the  founders  of  the  Franciscan  convent  (closed  in  1740)  and  are  perhaps  the  oldest 

olive-trees  in  America.  See  {>■  125 


Colonel  Prospero  Cahuantzi, 

the  somnolent  Governor. 


PORFIRIAN  GOVERNORS 


123 


quarters  :  first  the  soldiers  jog  along,  their  sombre 
uniforms  all  dusty,  then  a  multitude  of  women,  some 
of  them  with  children  fastened  to  their  backs,  and  all 
of  them  with  pots  and  pans.  They  try  to  keep  up 
with  the  soldiers,  but  it  is  a  weary  business.  At  their 
heels  and  very  wretched  are  a  quantity  of  mongrels. 
Soldiers,  women,  children,  mongrels — fighting  with 
the  dust ;  and  in  the  Governor's  train  were  deputies 
and  judges,  jefes  and  secretarios,  who  gradually  come 
into  the  light  of  day.  And  when  the  Governor's  term 
was  over  he  was  very  often  reappointed,  and  the 
satellites  rejoiced.  The  population  of  the  State  is 
unconcerned.  They  decorate  the  streets  a  little,  since 
it  is  requested  of  them ;  and  they  let  off  a  supply  of 
fireworks,  since  it  is  their  pleasure,  and  they  are  as 
keen  to  send  them  heavenward  (not  that  they  go 
very  far,  these  native  products),  they  are  just  as  keen 
to  send  them  up  in  honour  of  the  Virgin  or  a  Saint 
or  any  Governor.  Some  of  these  small  6  kings  '  ruled 
over  territories  most  extensive — Chihuahua  is  a 
State  of  227,468  square  kilometres,  and  Sonora  of 
more  than  199,000 — others  had  a  small  dominion, 
such  as  that  which  a  delightful  Aztec  gentleman 
administered.  He  was  of  such  obesity  that  it  was 
quite  impossible  for  him  to  keep  awake  (if  he  was 
being  spoken  to  or  not)  for  more  than  fifteen  minutes 
at  a  time.  However,  if  the  operatives  of  a  local 
cotton-mill  were  out  on  strike  he  took  the  field  in 
person,  on  a  horse,  and  after  that  the  strike  was  never 
serious.  Be  they  Governors  over  large  or  little  States 
they  would  refer  you  to  the  constitution  if  you  asked 
them  how  it  was  that  the  executive  and  legislature 
and  judiciary  are  independent  of  each  other.  '  It 
must  lead  to  awkwardness,'  you  said.  '  Sefior,  but 
it  is  in  the  constitution.'   '  I  have  an  affair,'  you  said  ; 


124      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


4  the  judge  is  so-and-so.   If  only  it  could  be  arranged, 

I  '    '  Yes  ?  '    And  you  conclude  the  sentence. 

'  Well,  well  '  said  the  Governor,  '  I  must  have  a 

conversation  with  him.  He  is  a  good  lad.  Yes,  who 
knows  ?  '  And  in  the  conversation  he  brought  up 
your  case  and  recommended  it  to  the  judge.  ...  As 
for  the  legislatures,  there  was  recently  in  one  State 
an  unheard-of  opposition  of  three  people.  6  It  is  the 
end  of  all  things,'  said  the  others.  And  who  were 
these  who  represented  60,000  ?  Sometimes  they 
were  wealthy  hacendados,  for  which  reason  they  were 
not  attracted  to  the  office,  and  they  let  their  substi- 
tutes [suplentes]  sit  and  earn  the  salary  instead  of  them. 
....  I  think  I  have  conveyed  the  general  impres- 
sion that  the  deputies  of  Mexico — both  of  the  Central 
Government  and  of  the  States — were  able  to  accom- 
plish far  less  than  their  brethren  in  most  other  coun- 
tries. But  there  was  a  deputy  who  took  no  part  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  first  two  weeks  of  Congress  ; 
it  was  noticed,  since  he  did  not  come  to  take  his  salary ; 
and  at  the  ending  of  the  second  fortnight  it  was 
noticed  once  again  that  he  did  not  come  for  his  salary. 
Was  he  ill,  was  he  in  Europe  ?  Then  another  fort- 
night and,  on  pay  day,  not  a  sign  of  him.  Perhaps 
he  was  too  altruistic  to  receive  a  salary.  They  got 
impatient  with  him  at  the  end  of  the  succeeding 
fortnight,  so  they  sent  an  urgent  messenger  and 
ascertained  that  he  had  died  eight  months  before  he 
ever  was  elected. 

On  reading  through  this  chapter  I  perceive  that  I 
have  used  an  adjective  to  which  objection  will  be 
taken.  Foreigners  and  Mexicans  say  frequently 
that  the  Republic  is  not  backward.  It  has  made 
colossal  strides,  they  say,  in  these  last  thirty  years. 
The  railways  and  the  banks,  the  manufactures — I 


PORFIRIAN  GOVERNORS 


125 


admit  that  they  exist,  and  even  if  the  Mexicans  would 
have  done  next  to  nothing  by  themselves,  yet  cer- 
tainly the  railways  and  the  banks  and  manufactures 
are  in  Mexico.  Before  this  period  of  thirty  years  the 
land  was  in  an  everlasting  turmoil — I  admit  that  for 
the  foreigner  and  for  his  money  Mexico  became  far 
safer  than  of  old.  The  Yaqui  Indians,  settled  in  a 
rich  part  of  Sonora,  struggled  vainly  to  resist  the 
Mexican  invasion,  but  the  Mexicans  in  their  rich 
country  have  been  wise  enough  to  let  their  names  be 
put  upon  the  foreigners'  prospectus  sheets.  It  has 
seemed  well  to  Providence  to  lead  the  Mexicans  into 
a  country  where  the  climate  is  delicious  and  the  soil 
is  often  rich  and  underneath  it  is  a  treasure-house  of 
jewels.  Therefore  you  would  fancy  that  the  Mexican 
would  thank  his  God — he  desecrates  the  temple  and 
he  desecrates  the  land.  At  crumbling  Tzintzuntzan, 
to  which  we  sail  to  see  the  Titian  in  the  church,  there 
is  a  notice  which  entreats  you  that  '  for  love  of  God  ' 
you  will  not  spit ;  all  over  Mexico  there  should  be 
notices  commanding  the  inhabitants  to  make  them- 
selves more  worthy  of  the  land.  It  is  not  of  the  In- 
dians that  I  speak  ;  they  gave  to  Mexico  the  greatest 
of  her  sons,  the  last  great  Mexican — Benito  Juarez — 
and  in  contemplation  of  their  sufferings  we  stand  in 
silence.  I  am  speaking  of  those  people  who  are  more 
or  less  of  Spanish  blood.  So  few  of  them  deserve  to  live 
in  Mexico  !  And  it  is  fashionable  to  deplore  that  all 
the  Indian  population  should  be  backward.  Leave  the 
Indians  whom  you  have  exploited  !  Look  upon 
yourselves  as  one  of  your  good  men,  the  aged  Agustin 
Rivera,  looks  upon  you.  '  In  theories  the  boldness 
of  Don  Quixote,  and  in  practice  the  pusillanimity, 
the  inability  to  conquer  obstacles,  and  the  phlegm  of 
Sancho  Panza.  .  .  .  We  are  given,'  says  Rivera,  '  to 


126      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


scholastic  disputes,  to  beautiful  discourses,  pretty 
poems,  enthusiastic  toasts,  proclamations,  projects, 
laws,  decrees,  programmes  of  scientific  education, 
plans  of  public  improvements,  in  Andalucian  style 
and  well-rounded  periods.  ...  In  the  department 
of  physics  in  the  College  of  Santo  Tomas  in  Guadala- 
jara were  taught  the  first  cause,  the  properties  of 
secondary  causes,  supernatural  operations,  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  Lord's  Supper,  eternity — everything, 
in  fact,  save  physics.'  He  says  that  you  were  back- 
ward in  viceregal  times,  and  in  the  year  you  pensioned 
him,  in  1901,  he  said  that  you  were  backward  still.  I 
say  that  you  were  going  backward,  for  the  poorer 
classes  under  Diaz  found  themselves  in  a  position 
which  compared  unfavourably  with  that  of  thirty 
years  ago.  It  is  most  difficult  to  enter  into  such 
comparisons,  but  after  taking  all  the  circumstances 
very  carefully  into  account  it  seemed  to  me  that  even 
if  the  old  times  were  as  bad  as  they  are  painted  we 
must  grieve  for  their  departure.  I  could  never  leave 
off  mourning  the  old  brigands.  They  were  swept 
away  from  all  the  roads  and  mountain  passes.  They 
— but  we  will  talk  of  them  no  more :  not  of  Porfirian 
cientiftcos,  not  of  the  secretario,  not  of  Porfirian 
jefes,  and  not  of  his  progresista  Senor  Gobernador. 


CHAPTER  VII 

A  SONG  OF  NIGHTINGALES 

A  swarthy  woman  goes  towards  the  market  with  a 
little  coffin  balanced  on  her  head  ;  a  younger  woman 
staggers  out  into  the  glaring  sunlight  with  the  cavalier 
who  lay  between  her  and  the  cold  for  several  hours  in 
that  foul  meson,  where  the  rats  apparently  disdained 
the  rags  which  flutter  round  the  couple,  and,  instead, 
have  nibbled  at  their  toe-nails  ;  they  would  not  have 
lurched  so  quickly  from  the  door  if  it  had  not  been 
for  the  placid-looking,  yellowish,  blind  beggar  whom 
perhaps  the  landlord,  and  perhaps  a  merry  comrade 
of  the  meson,  had  propelled  into  the  street.  That 
younger  woman's  friend  turns  round  to  strike  the 
human  avalanche,  when  she,  with  her  bad  feet,  rolls 
up  against  him  with  a  laugh  such  as  an  Andalucian 
fan  is  wont  to  hide,  and  so  the  couple  laugh  and  blink 
to  watch  the  coffin  in  the  sunlight.  Rarely  do  they 
hear  a  song  of  nightingales.  The  street  is  pictur- 
esque :  green  wooden  balconies  and  faded  sun-blinds 
hang  irregularly  from  those  buildings  which  are 
washed,  at  certain  seasons  like  their  inmates,  by  the 
rain.  One  guesses  at  the  colour  which  was  first 
exhibited  by  each  of  these  old  walls,  and  as  for  the 
strong,  iron  bars  fantastically  intertwined — have  they 
not  grown  more  twisted  and  awry  through  laughing  at 
the  grimness  of  their  lot  :  affixed  by  some  hidalgo  to 
protect  him  from  light-fingered  folk  and  now  this  folk 

127 


128      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


is  dwelling  in  the  dead  hidalgo's  palace  ?  Wayfarers 
and  loungers  of  the  slimy  street,  they  edge  towards 
the  footpath  as  two  members  of  the  rural  guard,  alert 
in  grey  and  silver,  ride  along  the  cobbles  and  will  scowl 
when  it  so  happens  that  their  horses'  feet,  accustomed 
to  the  treacherous  mountain  paths,  go  sliding  on  the 
vegetable  debris.  These  two  fellows  listen  regularly 
to  the  song  of  nightingales.  A  milkman  rides  behind 
them  with  his  jars  suspended,  military  fashion,  from 
the  saddle ;  and  two  wardrobes,  on  the  contrary,  are 
carried  on  the  shoulders  of  a  fragile-looking  Aztec, 
with  the  ankles  of  a  woman.  6  Angel's  hair  ! '  exclaims 
a  busy  vendor  of  that  delicacy.  4  Who  demands  my 
angel's  hair  ?  '  and  he  disposes  of  the  silken  threads, 
which  are  not  more  nor  less  than  finely  shredded 
melon  boiled  in  sugar.  Furtive,  tangled  carboneros 
from  a  distance  pick  their  way  among  the  various 
objects  of  the  street,  their  thin  arms  hanging  at  their 
sides,  while  they  walk,  bending  almost  double,  under- 
neath the  sacks  of  charcoal.  Desperate,  emaciated 
dogs  are  nosing  what  has  been  flung  out  upon  the 
cobbles,  and  a  curious  traveller  goes  by,  towards  the 
station,  a  white  handkerchief  tied  round  his  neck 
and  in  his  hand  a  European,  decorated  coal-scuttle,1 
whose  contents  are  prevented  by  a  piece  of  cord  from 

1  Even  when  the  higher  classes  travel,  you  will  be  astonished  at 
their  baggage.  In  Charles  Flandrau's  '  Viva  Mexico,'  there  is  a 
gentleman  who  has  a  bird-cage  full  of  boots ;  a  banker's  widow — 
Madame  Scherer — told  me  as  we  came  from  Europe  that  she  had  a 
quantity  of  boxes  :  37  items,  and  with  her  husband,  38.  She  dis- 
approved of  the  delicious  4  Viva  Mexico '  because  it  does  not  worship 
the  authorities.  And  as  for  her,  she  had  perceived  the  errors  of  the 
Jewish  faith  and  worshipped  God  in  Catholic  cathedrals,  just  as  He 
was  worshipped  by  her  and  her  husband's  potent  friend,  Don  Jose 
Limantour,  Minister  of  Finance,  whose  inclinations  it  was  well  to 
share.  'Tis  said  in  Mexico  that  Limantour's  French  father  was  a  Jew 
.  .  .  but  in  a  lyric  book  which  Diaz  Dufoo,  of  the  staff  of  'El 
Imparcial,'  once  wrote  about  the  son,  I  see  this  is  not  mentioned ; 
and  if  it  is  not  true  the  comedy  evaporates. 


A  SONG  OF  NIGHTINGALES  129 


falling  out.  The  traveller's  destination  and  his  trade 
are  mysteries.  A  man  goes  by  with  offal  from  the 
slaughter-house,  not  heeding  whom  he  may  collide 
against ;  a  sweating  water-carrier  in  leather  jacket, 
leather  apron  and  a  broad  strap  round  his  forehead  to 
support  the  jar  between  his  shoulders,  on  the  brass 
plate  which  he  wears  in  front  he  has  a  number  ;  then 
the  man  with  offal  steps  into  a  wider  street  just  round 
the  corner,  caring  not  whom  he  may  roll  against.  The 
loungers — here  they  call  them  lizards — block  the 
footpath  and  two  lines  of  vehicles  block  up  the  road, 
what  time  the  lizards  and  the  driven  hold  their  hands 
up  at  each  other,  twiddling  the  first  two  fingers. 
Women  of  the  upper  classes  who  might  profitably 
patronise  the  water-carrier  instead  of  trying  to  conceal 
their  Indian  pedigree  with  powder — 18  per  cent  alone 
of  Mexicans  have  undiluted  Spanish  blood — and 
young  men  also  of  the  upper  classes  greet  each  other 
with  an  air  of  satisfaction  as  they  tool  enormous 
motors  at  a  snail's  pace  up  and  down.  '  Buy  angel's 
hair  !  Who  will  buy  angel's  hair  ?  '  Sometimes  a 
week  of  two  before  they  marry  these  young  men  will 
hire  a  flock  of  angels  and  one  room  which  has  a  table 
in  the  centre ;  they  will  start  by  drinking  gallons  of 
champagne — for  they  have  listened  far  too  often  to 
the  song  of  nightingales.  The  sweetest  nightingale, 
so  says  the  proverb,  is  the  money  in  one's  purse. 

There  was  4  hardly  a  connecting  link  between  the 
blankets  and  the  satins,  the  poppies  and  the 
diamonds '  in  Madame  Calderon  de  la  Barca's  day 
(about  1840).  The  middle  class,  if  it  attempted 
to  exist,  was  plundered  by  the  Government  or 
by  the  other  bandits.  And  the  rise  thereof  is  a 
phenomenon  of  recent  years,  the  years  of  peace. 
But  for  this  middle  class  there  would  have  been 


130      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


no  Revolution.  4  It  is  the  middle  class,'  said  Don 
Porfirio  to  Mr.  Creelman,  '  that  concerns  itself  with 
politics  and  with  the  general  progress.  Hitherto 
our  difficulty  has  been  that  the  people  do  not  occupy 
themselves  enough  with  public  matters.'  When  the 
small  Chihuahua  farmers  and  the  tradesmen  did 
concern  themselves  with  such  affairs  they  had  against 
them  in  the  battlefield  and  elsewhere  both  the  upper 
and  the  lower  classes.  4  Something  which  is  most 
injurious  to  Mexico,'  said  Senor  Limantour  to  me  in 
London,  '  is  that  our  vast  Indian  population  is  so 
easily  contented.  We  can  sell  them  next  to  nothing.' 
And  I  found  that  it  was  so  ;  the  average  Indian,  grave 
and  childish,  was  content  to  march  in  Don  Porfirio' s 
army,  while  the  average  member  of  the  upper  classes 
was  content  to  march  with  what  they  deemed  the 
strong  battalions.  That  the  wealthy  should  not  be 
disposed  to  change  is  normal,  and  in  Mexico  the  upper 
classes  have —  so  far  as  I  could  ascertain — one  family, 
that  of  Cervantes,  which  is  ancient ;  while  the  others 
usually  hark  no  further  back  than  to  a  Spanish  mule- 
teer who  managed  to  obtain  concessions  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  or  to  a  soldier  or  a  skilful  smuggler  of 
the  same  dim  epoch,  or  a  priest — at  all  events  in 
Yucatan.  These  pious  founders  had  enriched  them- 
selves and  their  descendants,  in  default  of  others — 
the  remaining  Aztec  nobles  in  Cholula  and  Tlaxcala 
are  unrecognised,  unrecognisable  except  by  their  own 
race  ;  the  Spanish  nobles  crossed  the  seas  again  when 
Independence  was  declared — so  that  the  lucky 
offspring  of  these  various  professions  we  have 
mentioned  formed  the  upper  classes.  They  had 
not  had  time  to  lose  the  knowledge  of  how 
wealth  is  gathered,  and  the  great  majority  were  still 
engaged  in  this  pursuit,  nor  did  they  often  look  in  vain 


A  SONG  OF  NIGHTINGALES  131 

for  some  facilities  from  Don  Porfirio.  On  the  con- 
dition that  they  left  the  politics  to  him  and  those 
whom  he  selected,  General  Diaz — zealous  for  no  other 
thing  than  power  (until  the  cientificos  persuaded  him, 
a  very  old  man,  to  bethink  himself  of  gold  as  well) — 
was  ready  to  assist  the  wealthy  classes  to  be  wealthier, 
and  most  of  them  were  naturally  partisans  of  his. 
They  were  content.  But  with  the  lower  classes  it  was 
to  a  large  degree  their  disposition.  Nearly  all  the 
stars,  apparently,  must  in  their  courses  fight  against 
them  ere  they  yield  to  discontent  :  the  miners  at  a 
certain  camp  were  forced  to  jump  across  a  stick  while 
they  ejaculated  4  Ave  Maria!'  One  of  them  was  silent 
while  he  jumped.  '  Now,'  cried  the  foreman,  '  say 
your  prayers.'  Out  came  the  amalgam,  and  the  miner 
was  invited  to  explain.  '  I  will  tell  the  truth,'  he 
said ;  ■  they  pay  me  half  a  peso  every  day,  and  on  that 
sum  I  must  support  my  wife  and  seven  children,  my 
wife's  mother  and  my  aunt  and  my  mistress.'  Had 
he  been  a  trifle  less  domesticated  he  would  have 
been  satisfied  to  live  inside  an  empty  cement  barrel, 
which  is  considered  quite  respectable  ;  it  does  not 
give  much  shelter,  but  one  has  a  post-office  address. 
And  they  will  even,  if  it  be  demanded  of  them,  stop 
outside  the  church  :  a  woman  of  the  Zambos — that 
repulsive  negro -Indian  mixture — was  requested  by 
the  priest  to  stay  at  home,  as  she  distracted  the 
attention  of  the  faithful.  Circumstances  must  be  very 
difficult  if  ordinary  Indians  allow  themselves  to 
disobey :  a  mediocre  circus  was  performing  in  a 
village  near  to  Guanajuato,  and  the  manager,  afraid 
lest  there  should  be  a  tumult  of  dissatisfaction,  went 
into  the  ring  before  the  programme  started  and 
informed  the  audience  that  all  expression  of  emotion, 
whether  favourable  or  unfavourable,  was  entirely  out 


132      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


of  order.  So  the  programme  was  enacted  till  a 
lamp  upset ;  the  circus  was  in  flames  and  stolidly 
the  audience  walked  away.  These  Indians  are 
obedient  :  in  Tepic  it  was  commanded  that  no 
man  with  those  white,  flimsy,  cotton  drawers  should 
come  into  town,  but  that  he  should  array  himself  in 
trousers.  Comfortable  drawers  were  duly  put  away 
and  often  at  the  entrance  of  a  town,  the  native  carry- 
ing the  trousers  in  his  bundle  ;  also  he  would  some- 
times hire  the  trousers  cheaply  for  a  day.  It  is  their 
nature  to  be  satisfied  and  trouserless ;  it  also  is  their 
nature  to  adorn  themselves  and  thus  ascend  the  social 
scale  if  they  are  pushed.  An  Englishman  beyond 
Lake  Patzcuaro,  the  manager  of  a  great  lumber  works, 
refuses  to  increase  a  peon's  wages  if  he  will  not  put 
on  boots  in  place  of  sandals  and  equip  himself  with 
trousers.  Grave  and  gentle  and  contented  as  they 
naturally  are,  they  have  been  made  still  more  so  by 
the  centuries  (pre-Spanish  and  Colonial  and  Mexican) 
of  miscellaneous  oppression.  But  within  them, 
deeply  buried,  is  the  faculty  of  the  divinest  discontent. 
In  many  of  the  tribes  a  desperado  will  at  once  walk  off 
to  justice  at  the  heels  of  some  small  boy  who  carries  in 
his  belt  a  cane  of  red  Brazil  wood,  called  a  vara,  with 
the  reddish  ribbons  hanging  down  ;  it  is  the  vara,  not 
the  man,  which  they  respect.  And  with  a  docile 
perseverance  they  bore  arms  for  Don  Porfirio,  despite 
the  cruelty  and  hardships  that  a  dog  would  have 
resented.  And  at  last  they  can  be  capable  of  showing, 
very  clearly,  that  they  are  dissatisfied  :  a  native  of 
Oaxaca,  a  poor  fisherman,  forgave  his  wife  her  first 
few  infidelities  and  then  he  put  a  stake  through  her 
body  and  in  the  centre  of  a  piece  of  blazing  sand  he 
took  his  steps  against  the  lover,  whom  he  buried  to  the 
neck  and  near  him  lay  a  gourd  of  water.   In  Hidalgo 


Building  a  Railway  in  Hidalgo. 

The  man  between  the  rails  is  a  murderer  and  a  good  workman. 


A  SONG  OF  NIGHTINGALES  133 


was  another  husband,  a  mechanic  on  a  half -completed 
railway,  who  was  patient  with  his  wife,  the  cook, 
until  she  had  deceived  him  thrice  ;  he  warned  the 
lover  that  it  must  occur  no  more,  and  when  it  did  he 
slew  this  man,  was  flung  into  Pachuca  prison,  and 
would  surely  not  have  been  allowed  on  bail,  a  per- 
manent condition,  if  his  engineering  prowess  had  been 
mediocre.  Maybe  in  the  central  districts  of  Jalisco 
this  catastrophe  would  not  have  happened,  since  the 
woman — she  was  such  an  admirable  cook — would 
have  conformed  with  local  habits  and  would  have  set 
down  before  the  husband  she  intended  to  dishonour  a 
good  soup  of  donkey's  ear  ;  as  an  alternative  she 
would  have  been  obliged  to  hold  the  little  finger  of  her 
left  hand  in  his  drinking-water.  .  .  .  Even  as  the 
proletariat  in  Mexico  have  got  it  in  them  to  rebel  at 
home,  so  will  they,  under  heavy  provocation,  show 
their  discontent  in  public  matters  :  Chato  [pug-nose] 
Diaz,  brother  to  the  President  and  father,  it  is  said, 
to  General  Felix  Diaz,  was  treated  like  our  Indian 
lover,  only  worse.  To  punish  him  for  a  detestable 
existence — now  and  then,  because  of  ennui,  he  would 
shoot  a  sentry — Juchitan  arose  and  cut  the  soles  from 
his  feet  and  made  him  walk  a  mile  or  two  across  the 
sand.  (Porfirio's  revenge  was  such  that  now  the  wind- 
swept town  of  Juchitan  looks  like  the  suburb  of  its 
cemetery.)  When  the  tireless  propaganda  of  Madero 
and  the  triumph  of  his  followers  had  driven  home, 
at  last,  to  Don  Porfirio's  army  that  there  was  indeed 
much  cause  for  them  to  be  dissatisfied,  they  started 
to  desert  and  the  Diazpotism  was  a  doomed  affair. 
This  blind  servility,  which  had  been  manifested  for 
so  long,  was  thought  by  Don  Porfirio's  adherents  to  be 
unassailable  :  you  were  compelled  in  opening  the 
Congress  to  address  His  Excellency  with  enormous 


134      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


periods  of  vast  magniloquence,  and  there  is  a  humane 
provision  that  the  Speaker  varies  every  month — the 
business  man  Macedo,  who  performed  this  function 
in  September,  1910,  acknowledged  ruefully,  behind 
the  scenes,  that  he  was  bowing  to  the  precedents — 
but  if  you  had  occasion  to  address  a  nameless  Indian, 
say  a  Huichol,  you  could  call  him  anything  you  liked ; 
for  instance,  4  de  la  Cruz  '  [of  the  Cross],  which  he 
would  understand 1  and  henceforth  this  would  be  the 
fellow's  surname.  Very  often,  Lumholtz  tells  us,  they 
would  not  remember  what  the  name  was  which  had 
been  bestowed  upon  them,  and  if  they  could  not  afford 
the  fee  of  25  centavos  they  were  not  encumbered  with 
a  Christian  name  at  all  and  they  were  perfectly  con- 
tent. The  Huichols  are  but  one  division  of  the  Indian 
race  in  Mexico,  but  this  ingrained  inherited  indiffer- 
ence to  fortune  has  been  found  to  dwell  among  the 
larger  number.  Let  them  have  or  not  have  any  name 
or  rights  or  prospects,  they  were  always  more  disposed 
to  bear  the  burden,  be  it  great  or  small :  the  execution 
of  five  people  (see  p.  91)  on  suspicion  or  withholding 
from  a  man  the  power  to  celebrate  a  humble  feast 
when  he  has  had  a  child  of  his  baptised — a  lowly 
citizen  begged  for  an  audience  with  the  post-Porfirian 
jefe  politico  of  Merida,  Senor  Camara  y  Camara  and 
amazed  him  by  soliciting  permission  for  the  feast. 
As  thus  the  Indians  were  inclined  to  be  submissive 
they  were  more  and  more  repressed,  but  that  which 
irritated  them  to  danger-point  was  the  increasing  gulf 
between  themselves  and  those  who  battened  on  the 
song  of  nightingales.    Without  affirming  that  the 

1  Their  folk-lore  has  its  worship  of  the  Perfect  Man  ;  it  has  a  figure 
of  the  Greek  and  Latin  cross  which  represents  the  human  figure  with 
its  arms  outstretched  ;  while  if  they  trace  a  second  cross  on  cliffs  or 
sand  or,  as  a  medicine,  on  the  patient's  body  it  is  there  to  represent 
the  moon  ;  and  if  a  third  cross  it  is  probably  the  morning  star. 


A  SONG  OF  NIGHTINGALES  135 


gorgeous  fetes  in  honour  of  the  Revolution  against 
Spain  a  hundred  years  ago  stirred  up  the  recent 
Revolution,  it  is  safe  to  argue  that  the  poorer  classes 
were  as  much  exasperated  as  their  English  brethren 
by  the  Coronation,  which — I  think  we  could  perceive 
without  great  inroads  on  our  perspicuity — contributed 
a  bitterness  into  the  feelings  of  so  many  who  partici- 
pated in  the  Strike  of  1911.  That  prolonged  display 
of  opulence,  that  circus  in  the  streets  of  Mexico,  was 
incommensurate  with  the  amount  of  bread — in  place 
of  this  old  Roman  policy,  the  more  dilapidated  of 
the  mob  were  locked  away,  while  those  who  lined  the 
pavement  were  prevented  from  encroaching  on  the 
road  by  means  of  the  policemen's  dog- whips  and 
the  hind  legs  of  policemen's  horses.  That  prolonged 
display  was  incommensurate  with  the  position  of  the 
country  :  '  Mexico,'  said  the  4  Mexican  Herald,' 4  is  the 
second  of  the  world's  Republics.'  On  the  next  day 
this  diverting  Yankee  journal  had  an  article  which 
very  seriously  put  the  claims  of  France,  but  Manuel 
Acuna  had  extolled  this  very  people  with  a  view  to 
pouring  greater  glamour  round  his  own  : 

Of  those  who  march  to  the  drum, 
In  the  seas  of  whose  triumph  the  sum 
Of  all  triumph  beside  is  immersed. 
Panic-stricken  and  rudely  dispersed 
Three  times  he  was  flung  into  flight 
By  the  people  who  rose  in  their  might 
And,  Fatherland^  came  to  thy  need, 
Gave  a  soldier  for  each  of  thy  seed, 
For  each  soldier  a  lord  of  the  fight. 

Serenely  did  the  Government  of  Mexico  proclaim  its 
grandeur.  .  .  .  To  assert  that  every  man  of  wealth 
was  in  or  with  the  Government  would  be  too  sweeping . 
Don  Francisco  I.  Madero  stood  against  them  and  among 
the  foreigners  who  temporarily  opposed  them  was  the 


136      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Signor  Dante  Cusi,  for  he  spent  some  half  a  million 
pesos  on  an  irrigation  work  and  wanted  to  employ  the 
water  of  his  own  estate.  The  Minister  Molina  would 
not  hear  of  it,  and  ultimately  gave  permission  if  the 
legal  paper  was  drawn  up  by  Casasus,  a  friend  of  his, 
the  ex-Ambassador  in  Washington — the  fee  was 
30,000  pesos.  But  the  men  who  governed  Mexico 
were,  generally  speaking,  those  who  had  control  of 
her  finance  and  industries  ;  they  had  the  power  and 
wealth,  tremendous  opportunities,  and  little  sense  of 
a  responsibility  towards  the  people.  Oh,  the  lower 
classes — if  the  economic  state  of  Mexico  produced  in 
them  a  sentiment  of  agitation,  it  would  be  advisable 
to  drink  the  liquor  of  boiled  humming-bird,  which  is, 
they  say,  effectual  for  heart  disease. 

The  middle  class  began  to  thrust  themselves 
between  the  hammer  and  the  anvil.  As  a  rule  this 
intermediate  class,  in  order  to  preserve  itself,  looks 
forward  to  alliance  with  the  hammer.  But  in  Mexico 
the  upper  ranks  were  very  much  inclined  to  keep 
themselves  apart  and  some  of  those  who  were  con- 
spicuous among  the  leaders  hardly  were  conspicuous 
for  probity.  The  middle  class  had  therefore,  on 
account  of  self-preserving  reasons  and  of  altruistic 
ones,  to  seek  alliance  with  the  anvil.  In  Chihuahua, 
for  example,  the  entire,  enormous  State  was  in  the 
hands  of  General  Luis  Terrazas  and  his  family  of 
millionaires  and  some  few  other  favoured  persons. 
Not  alone  had  they  become  proprietors  of  most  of  the 
material  resources,  but  the  Government  was  likewise 
in  their  hands — they  seemed  to  be  so  indispensable 
that  when  an  aged  tool  of  theirs,  the  Governor,  was 
deposed  by  Don  Porfirio  in  the  turmoil  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, when  Chihuahua  was  most  critically  situated 
and  the  family  of  General  Terrazas  were  as  popular 


After  a  Skirmish  in  Chihuahua. 


A  Land-owner. 

General  Luis  Terrazas,  whose  estate  is,  or  was,  nearly  as  large  as  Holland  and  Belgium  together. 


A  SONG  OF  NIGHTINGALES  137 


among  the  people  as  a  red  rag  with  a  bull,  then  a 
particularly  hated  son  of  his — so  dissolute  that  he 
seduced  his  own  niece  before  he  married  her — was  put 
into  the  vacant  office,  not  because  it  was  believed  that, 
in  a  rough-and-ready  manner,  he  would  cause  the  two 
opposing  factions  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  drink 
away,  with  him,  perhaps  at  his  expense,  their  griev- 
ances ;  no,  it  had  been  in  contemplation  for  some 
years  that  he  should  be  appointed  Governor  6  to 
steady  him.'  Those  who  were  anxious  for  improve- 
ment in  his  character  did  not  delay  to  point  out  to  the 
others  that,  as  he  had  never  been  entrusted  with  a 
post,  the  highest  post  of  all  would  have  a  tendency  to 
occupy  his  time.  And  he  misgoverned  poor  Chihuahua 
for  a  month  or  two.  The  middle  class  of  that  high 
northern  State  is  vigorous  ;  there  came  a  time  when 
the  Terrazas  tyranny — each  jefe  "politico  a  little  tyrant 
— was  no  longer  to  be  borne.  If  anyone  is  permanently 
in  possession  of  a  post  and  if  he  is  a  demi-god  unani- 
mously re-elected,  there  will  not  be  wanting  those 
who  nourish  the  belief  in  their  equality,  to  say  the 
least  of  it,  with  him.  Don  Jose  Limantour,  the 
famous  Minister,  would  therefore  smile  on  being  told 
that  he  possessed  another  critic.  He  repaired  perhaps 
into  his  famous  garden  and  endowed  it  with  another 
rose  tree.  Did  not  all  the  world  resound  with  his 
achievement  of  establishing  the  national  finances  on  a 
gold  foundation  ?  He  was  certainly  a  competent,  a 
more  than  competent  financier.  But  the  middle 
class  regarded  him  with  no  enthusiasm  :  the  statistics 
which  he  flaunted,  for  example  of  the  imports,  saying 
that  from  18,000,000  pesos  in  1876  they  had  increased 
to  something  like  200,000,000 — these  required  an 
explanation  ;  for  the  former  figures  in  a  totally  dis- 
tracted land  were  destitute  of  any  value.  Mining  in  the 


188      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


same  years  yielded  20,000,000  pesos  and  150,000,000; 
but  how  many  of  them  stayed  in  Mexico  ?  And 
foreign  companies  derided  the  proposal  to  subject 
them  to  the  mining  laws  of  the  Republic.  Then  the 
middle  class  could  show  that  by  the  tariff  it  was 
certain  of  the  foreigners  and  of  the  wealthy  Mexicans 
who  profited.  And  Limantour's  transaction  with  the 
railways  had,  maybe,  strategic  value,  though  this  has 
been  doubted,  but  financially  was  far  too  beneficial 
for  a  wealthy  group  :  a  sum  of  50  million  pesos  van- 
ished in  the  process 1 ;  there  was  an  unseemly  squabble 
as  to  several  millions  of  the  spoil  between  the  widow 
of  del  Rio  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Minister  upon  the 
other.  It  is  not  to  be  contradicted  that  the  schemes 
of  Limantour  in  many  cases  changed  the  chaos  into 
order  ;  but  again  it  was  a  firm  of  foreign  bankers 
(Messrs.  Scherer)  which  bought  up  the  I O  U's 
[alcances]  of  the  Government  employes  at  a  discount 
of  from  40  to  50  per  cent,  and  these  were  paid  by 
Limantour.  Julio  Limantour,  his  late  brother,  was 
a  partner  of  Messrs.  Scherer. 

We  have  in  Don  Ramon  Corral,  the  late  Vice- 
President,  a  fair  example  of  a  man  who  by  his  own 
exertions  raised  himself  into  the  upper  class,  while 
Limantour  had  the  advantage  of  a  father,  a  shrewd 
Frenchman,  who  acquired  the  capellanias  in  1867, 
when  the  Church  was  separated  from  the  State  and  it 
was  cheap  to  get  control  of  these  foundations  which 
the  pious  had  established,  either  for  a  Mass  to  be 
perpetually  said  or  for  the  education  of  the  impecuni- 
ous. (There  was,  of  course,  an  option  for  descendants 
of  the  founder  to  regain  the  gift,  but  this  was  generally 

1  The  Government  bought  the  various  American  lines  for  150 
million  dollars  gold  =  300  million  pesos.  Bonds  were  issued  for 
350  million  pesos. 


A  SONG  OF  NIGHTINGALES  139 


looked  upon  with  prejudice.)  Now  Don  Ramon  Corral, 
apart  from  politics,  was  hated  by  the  middle  class 
because  he  was  successful  and  did  not  concern  himself 
in  making  life  more  pleasant  for  the  others,  and  because 
he  was  disreputable.  Many  members  of  the  wealthy 
class,  no  doubt,  were  hard  on  those  who  were  less 
fortunate,  but  Corral,  Senor  Izabal  and  General  Torres 
had  Sonora  in  their  grasp  ;  it  was  a  long  triumvirate 
of  tyrants.  Those  who  felt  compassion  for  the 
Yaquis  had  to  execrate  these  miserable  Governors. 
Forsooth,  they  said  the  Yaquis  were  not  law-abiding 
persons,  for  this  people  showed  resistance  to  the  law 
of  Corral,  Izabal  and  Torres.  Land  of  great  fertility 
should  not  be  Yaqui  land,  so  the  triumvirate  per- 
suaded General  Diaz  to  dispatch  an  army.  Peace 
had  been  prevailing  for  quite  long  enough,  nearly 
150  years,  and  the  nefarious  land-registration  law 
which  Diaz  fathered — anybody  could  lay  claim 
to  lands  to  which  the  actual  possessors  could  not 
prove  recorded  titles — this  was  ample  to  provoke 
the  conflict,  for  the  Yaquis  knew  no  more  of  titles 
than  their  ancestors,  through  all  those  centuries,  had 
known  of  Spaniards  or  of  Mexicans.  An  explanation 
never  was  vouchsafed  to  them  and  a  protracted  war 
began.  The  soldier  who  could  kill  a  Yaqui  warrior — 
no  such  simple  business,  they  discovered — and  could 
show  his  victim's  ears,  obtained  a  bounty  of  a  hundred 
pesos.  So  the  war  was  profitable  to  the  soldiers,  who 
could  get  their  trophies,  after  all,  from  any  Yaqui 
farmer  at  the  plough  ;  was  profitable  likewise  to  the 
gentlemen  who  sold  the  guns  and  ammunition  to  the 
Yaquis  and  inherited  their  lands.  That  many  were 
deported  to  the  Yucatan  peninsula  is  common 
knowledge.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  the  authorities 
who  triumphed  in  the  Revolution  would  not  have  this 


140      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


blot  to  stay  upon  the  honour  of  their  country. 
Apropos  of  honour,  I  believe  the  writers  in  the  Mexi- 
can Republic  looked  askance  upon  a  colleague  who 
contributed  a  book  about  Corral  and  did  not  say  one 
single  word  of  how  that  person,  ere  the  age  of  twenty, 
forged  his  benefactor's  name  and  was  imprisoned. 
But  Corral  had  one  good  quality,  besides  his  business 
aptitude  :  he  loved  his  children  very  much.  A  father 
whom  I  knew  in  Mexico  was  so  devoted  to  his  little 
children  that  when  he  returned  at  nine  or  ten  o'clock 
for  supper  he  insisted  on  their  presence,  and  they  used 
to  go  to  bed  for  several  hours  before  he  came.  Corral, 
when  he  was  going  to  a  brothel,  did  not  leave  his  son  at 
home. 

These  were  the  kind  of  people  whom  the  middle 
class  were  up  against.  These  were  the  upper  class. 
They  did  not,  it  is  true,  behave  like  the  Apaches  of 
the  Sierra  Madre,  who  would  come  down  from  their 
mountain  strongholds  at  a  certain  month — 4  the  moon 
of  the  Mexicans  ' — which  they  had  set  apart  for 
plunder.  No,  there  was  not  any  special  month.  Of 
course,  in  every  country  those  who  have  the  wealth 
and  those  who  have  the  power  which  emanates  from 
the  political  organisation  will  entrench  themselves  in  a 
commanding  place,  but  there  was  not  another  country 
which  was  civilised  and  which  displayed  so  grossly 
this  phenomenon.  The  mediaeval  mode  of  life  per- 
sisted, they  had  not  advanced  as  much  as  Spain — for 
instance,  in  the  Jockey  Club  a  grandee  from  the 
Motherland  who  would,  if  anybody,  be  received  with 
open  arms,  announced  that  he  had  found  it  necessary 
to  frequent  a  brothel  as  he  would  not  otherwise  have 
met  a  lady.  And  this  segregation  was  enforced  not  only 
with  the  foreigner — the  diplomatic  body,  one  by  one, 
gave  up  the  vain  attempt  to  move  in  Mexican  society ; 


A  SONG  OF  NIGHTINGALES  141 


for  if  the  native  ladies  deigned  to  answer  invitations 
to  a  dinner  and,  an  hour  before  the  time,  sent  round 
a  servant  with  a  note  to  say  that  after  all  they  would 
not  come,  there  was  the  placid  consciousness  among 
these  ladies  that  they  had  dispensed  the  cream  of 
courtesy.  The  intercourse  between  them  and  the 
gentlemen  of  Mexico  was  very  slight,  but  on  the  other 
hand  they  were  upon  the  best  of  terms  with  all  the 
saints,  except  if  now  and  then  the  saints  were  bearish  : 
one  young  lady  vowed  her  necklace  to  a  figure  of  the 
Virgin  if  she  was  invited  to  a  certain  party.  She  was 
not  invited  ;  if  she  had  been  she  would  have  adorned 
the  figure  and  removed  the  necklace  only  when  she 
wished  to  wear  it.  Little  girls  were  dressed  up  stiffly 
for  a  month  to  represent  the  Virgin  of  Lourdes,  and 
little  boys  three  years  of  age  could  be  discerned  in 
tramcars  dressed  in  the  unhealthy  habit  of  St. 
Francis — '  Oh,  the  darling  little  Franciscito  !  '  was 
the  cry.  Nor  did  the  convents  which  illegally  existed 
differ  much  from  mediaeval  ones  in  Spain.  The  inmates 
even  had  the  custom  of  adorning  waxen  dolls,  now  as  a 
priest,  now  as  a  canon  or  a  doctor,  with  a  wig  or  gold- 
knobbed  stick.  '  Is  he  not  beautiful,  my  little  Jesus  ?  ' 
asked  the  girls  in  a  Puebla  convent  of  a  foreign  lady 
whom  I  knew  there.  And  in  Spain,  at  Pampeluna, 
are  preserved  the  relics  of  a  holy  child  of  wax,  which 
had  belonged  to  Juan  de  Jesus  San  Joaquin,  a  monk 
when  Philip  IV.  was  on  the  throne.  That  doll  is  said 
to  have  accomplished  many  miracles.  This  social 
and  religious  medievalism  joined  itself  most  naturally 
to  the  economic  privileges  of  the  upper  class.  In  other 
mediaeval  countries  there  was  not  the  same  material 
progress,  not  the  same  great  chances  of  enrichment. 
So  the  middle  class  had  obstacles  more  serious  than 
elsewhere  ;  they  themselves  were  children  of  the  past 


142      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


and  this  infected  chiefly  their  religion.  As  they 
struggled  to  emancipate  the  country,  as  they  brought 
about  at  length  the  Revolution,  they  were  pushing  to 
a  place  between  the  stolid  classes  over  and  above 
them.  '  This  transcendental  work,'  said  '  El  Correo 
Espanol '  in  August,  1892,  reviewing  the  account  which 
Dr.  Fortunato  Hernandes  recently  had  published  on 
the  Indian  races — Don  Porfirio's  Government  com- 
missioned him  to  study  them — '  this  transcendental 
work  shows  us  the  people  with  their  melancholy  look, 
with  all  the  past  of  their  pride  of  demi-gods,  of  the 
burden  of  their  unspeakable  present  and  all  the 
sadness  of  the  slavery  to  come.'  The  middle  class  were 
battling  with  this  phalanx  and  that  other  and  with 
other  days. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN1-2 
I 

Don  Ignacio' s  letter 

In  Yucatan  the  masters  are  particularly  kind  to  their 
dependents,  for  the  reason  that  there  is  a  scarcity 
of  labour.  Should  a  slave  exhibit  symptoms  of 
disease  he  is  provided,  free  of  charge,  with  medical 
attendance  on  the  hacienda,  or  is  carried  to  the 
master's  house  in  Merida,  no  charges  being  usually 
made  for  board  and  lodging.  People  who  insist  on  being 
cynical  may  say  that  this  is  how  the  mules  are  treated 
and  that  if  you  are  the  owner  of  a  mule  or  slave  you 
naturally  will  prevent  the  creature's  body  from 
becoming  inefficient.   You  will  know  precisely  where 

1  For  the  pronunciation  of  Yucatan  place-names,  see  Glossary. 

2  '  Instead  of  describing  the  hacienda  system  of  Yucatan,'  said  an 
American  reader  of  my  MS.,  '  the  author  goes  into  hysterics  over  the 
peons  and  their  practical  slavery. '  If  you  believe  a  person  is  hysterical 
you  certainly  will  not  believe  him  if  he  should  deny  the  charge.  '  Of 
the  terrible  outrages  he  speaks  of  as  if  they  occurred  daily,  one  took 
place  fourteen  years  ago.'  But  as  the  murderers  are  still  at  large 
the  blot  on  Yucatan  grows  larger.  And  if  I  were  to  give  all  the  cases 
which  have  happened  recently — some  people  will  assert  that  I  give 
quite  enough — the  reader  I  have  quoted  would  be  justified  in  repri- 
manding me.  The  hacienda  system  is  described  most  adequately,  I 
believe,  by  Don  Ignacio  Peon,  and  I  am  at  a  loss  to  supplement  his 
information.  Some  haciendas  (such  as  his)  have  a  resident  priest, 
others  have  not ;  in  some  of  the  haciendas  it  is  customary  for  the 
master  to  appropriate  a  portion  of  the  wild  stag  which  his  slave  has 
shot ;  in  others  this  does  not  obtain.  .  .  .  But  I  believe  that  the  whole 
hacienda  system  is  an  outrage,  since  it  is  dependent  on  the  hacendado. 
Where,  like  Don  Ignacio,  he  is  a  good  man  life  is  quite  endurable  for 
those  upon  his  farm,  and  where  he  is  a  bad  man  life  is  unendurable. 


143 


144      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


to  draw  the  line,  since,  if  the  body  has  upon  it  certain 
wounds  or  scars  got  in  the  ordinary  course  of  things, 
it  can  continue  to  produce  the  same  amount  of  labour. 
Well,  suppose  we  let  the  cynics  have  their  way; 
suppose  we  do  not  give  the  master  credit  for  exalted 
motives,  it  remains  a  fact  that  he  is  careful  of  the 
body  of  his  slave.  In  Yucatan  he  is  more  careful 
than  in  parts  of  the  Republic  where  the  labour  market 
is  so  crowded  that  it  is  as  though  one  passes  through 
a  field  of  corn,  and  if  from  time  to  time  you  knock  a 
head  off — will  the  Government  have  people  watching, 
or  will  Governments  of  other  countries  watch  ?  For 
instance,  if  you  have  a  hacienda  in  Campeche  you  will 
not,  from  all  accounts,  be  harried  by  the  public 
servants,  though  one  might  suppose  that  these  would 
serve  the  public  which  remunerates  them.  Let  a 
native  of  Jamaica  talk :  '  Somebody  went  to 
Jamaica,'  were  his  words,  '  and  made  a  contract,  and 
they  carried  down  here  about  200  men  for  the  cutting 
of  dye-wood.  When  they  came  here  they  sold  them 
to  the  farmers,  2  dollars  each ;  and  they  were  compelled 
to  work  for  any  wages  that  was  offered  to  them.  I 
lived  to  witness  the  skulls  of  eighteen  men,  natives  of 
Jamaica,  that  were  buried  in  one  grave.  They  were 
murdered  because  they  refused  to  work  as  slaves. 
They  were  flogged  to  death  at  a  place  called  San 
Ignacio.  Those  who  were  yet  alive  could  not  inform 
the  British  Consul,  because,  if  they  wrote,  the  letter  is 
searched  and  torn  to  pieces.  Some  of  them  are  there 
to-day  ;  they  get  a  little  more  wages  and  a  little 
liberty,  but  they  can't  leave  the  place.  ...  In  1903 
I  came  in  a  contract  from  Havana  with  140  men  ;  I 
went  as  an  interpreter.  The  contractor  did  not  know 
that  I  knew  the  Republic  before.  They  carried  us 
to  the  same  spot,  San  Ignacio,  and  they  treated  us  just 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  145 

the  same  as  those  men  formerly.  As  I  speak  the 
Indian  language  I  got  a  chance  to  run  away,  escape 
from  the  place,  myself  and  six  others.  After  travelling 
for  ten  days  in  the  woods,  among  tigers  and  snakes, 
we  find  ourselves  in  the  nearest  town,  Laguna,  and 
present  ourselves  to  the  British  Consul.  He  also  was 
a  shareholder  in  the  company  and  he  gave  us  no 
satisfaction.  Hahn  is  his  name,  a  German.1  They 
put  us  in  gaol  and  they  compelled  us  to  return  to  the 
same  spot.  There  we  remained  with  the  rest  for  three 
months.  We  had  to  steal  a  boat  in  the  night  and  make 
an  escape.'  All  this  is  the  statement  of  a  negro  ;  but 
a  neighbouring  hacienda,  San  Patricio,  was  described 
to  us  by  an  American  who  was  anxious  to  conceal  the 
worst  abuses  out  of  loyalty  to  previous  employers. 
They  are  Americans  who  get  their  men  by  contract 
from  the  colder  parts  of  the  Republic,  and  they  usually 
do  not  live  long  enough  to  get  acclimatised.  So  many 
women  are  imported  with  each  lot  of  men,  these 
women  being  told  that  they  will  be  expected  to 
prepare  the  food.  Sometimes  they  really  do  not  think 
that  any  other  thing  will  be  expected  from  them,  and 
indeed  it  was  not  in  San  Patricio's  schedule  when  a 
native  foreman  made  a  number  of  these  women,  in 
whose  contract  there  was  absolutely  nothing  said  of 
dancing,  go  through  dances  in  his  presence,  having 
been  deprived  of  their  apparel.  .  .  .  The  conditions 
of  Campeche  are  inferior  to  those  of  Yucatan,  the 
haciendas  being  less  accessible.  Where  telegraphs  and 
roads  are  wanting,  where  the  overseer  makes  out  the 
certificates  of  death,  he  being  the  assistant  justice 
[juez  auxiliar],  where  it  is  the  custom  to  oblige  the 
hands  to  work  gratuitously  (en  fagina  is  the  phrase) 
all  Sunday,  every  Sunday,  for  the  owner,  and  where 

1  Now  dead. 

L 


146      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


hacendados  are  not  seldom  in  financial  straits,  so  that 
for  some  months  they  sublet  the  shop  and  he  who 
takes  it  as  a  speculation  does  not  try  to  keep  the  prices 
down — you  will  not  charge  me  with  exaggerating  if  I 
say  that  sometimes  in  Campeche  labourers  are  poorly 
off.  They  have  a  chance  of  greater  happiness  in 
Yucatan,  and  if  I  deal  with  those  comparatively 
pampered  people  I  shall  not  be  charged  by  owners  with 
injustice.  To  describe  the  fortunes  of  a  slave  in 
Mexico  I  might  avail  myself  of  evidence  collected  by 
a  friend  of  mine  while  he  was  in  the  service  of  a  famous 
pulque  company  whose  operations  are  in  several 
States  upon  the  central  tableland.  But  there  the 
workers  are  not  lacking,  and  in  consequence  are  not 
so  petted  as  in  Yucatan.  And  since  it  is  important 
that  the  owners  should  not  say  I  am  unjust  I  will  not 
mention  any  of  the  sordid,  pitiable  cases  which  that 
gentleman  has  given  me.  Perhaps  he  has  too  sensitive 
a  temperament — I  must  admit  that  he  has  now 
become  an  artist — and  he  thinks  these  pulque 
workers  are  the  most  unhappy  people  in  the 
world.  I  could  avail  myself  of  evidence  collected 
by  my  erudite  and  indefatigable  friend  Don 
Carlos  R.  Menendez,  who  is  President  of  the 
Associated  Press  of  Mexico  and  editor  of  one  of 
the  few  papers  you  can  read.  He  wrote  a  mono- 
graph upon  the  Indians  of  the  whole  Republic, 
showing  that  the  wild  ones  have  decreased  deplor- 
ably in  number — from  about  10  millions  in  the  Spanish 
era  to  about  2|  millions — showing  also  why  it  is  that 
they  are  in  so  grievous  a  condition  :  wrongs  they 
suffered  from  their  own  6  nobility  '  before  the  con- 
quest, terrible  exactions  of  the  conquerors,  most 
devastating  plagues,  a  lack  of  hygiene,  alcohol, 
premature  marriage  and  marriage  between  parties 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  147 


that  do  not  love  each  other  and  sometimes  (as  I  will 
instance)  do  not  even  know  each  other.  This  de- 
population and  this  degradation  have  attacked  the 
native  races  of  the  whole  Republic  ;  only  in  Oaxaca 
are  they  adding  to  their  numbers,  and  in  that  State 
have,  like  vicious  tourists,  to  be  under  observation 
when  they  tread  the  lovely  courts  of  their  ancestral 
Mitla.  Maya,  Zapoteco,  Nahuatlan  and  Tarascan, 
they  are  in  a  sorry  plight ;  the  efforts  which  are 
being  made  on  their  behalf  are  moderate.  If  they 
are  not  among  the  outcasts  then  they  are  among  the 
slaves,  and  those  of  Yucatan,  the  Mayas,  ought  to  be 
the  happiest.  They  do  not  know,  however,  what  a 
life  it  is  of  which  their  cousins  die,  nor  do  they  know 
what  special  slavery  subsists  among  the  half-breeds  of 
Campeche,  of  the  central  tableland,  the  Valle  Nacional, 
and  other  parts.  Judged  as  a  whole,  they  seem  to 
have  a  happier  existence  than  the  other  pure-blood 
races  or  the  toiling  half-breeds,  but  out  of  considera- 
tion for  the  owners  of  all  Mexico  I  will  in  the  remainder 
of  this  paper  on  '  The  Slaves  '  allude  to  none  except 
the  Mayas. 

I  did  not  discover  Yucatan.  Fierce  battles  have 
been  waged  already  over  the  remarks  of  those  who 
came  before  me,  hacendados  (owners  of  the  haciendas 
and  of  slaves)  asserting  that  the  books,  if  rigorous,  are 
written  after  an  absurdly  brief  experience.  Some- 
times they  say  that  Anglo-Saxon  residents  in  Merida 
amuse  themselves  at  the  expense  of  poor  and  un- 
suspicious writers.  I  have  got  no  doubt  but  that  I 
shall  be  charged  with  something  heinous,  only  it 
will  have  to  be  with  something  new ;  because  I  stayed 
for  many  weeks  in  Yucatan,  I  was  not  unsuspicious 
and  I  got  one  of  the  ablest  and  the  most  respected 
hacendados — Don  Ignacio  Peon — to  state  his  point 


148      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


of  view.  I  then  proceeded  to  reply  to  his  remarks, 
he  listening  with  great  forbearance.  In  the  first  place 
he  does  not  agree  with  me  that  they  are  slaves. 
'  Some  people,'  I  may  thus  translate  his  written 
words,  c  have  gone  so  far  as  to  assert  that  Indians 
can  be  bought  and  sold.  If  this  were  so  I  would  agree 
that  there  is  slavery  in  Yucatan  ;  but  it  is  such  a  base- 
less charge  as  not  to  be  worth  contradicting.'  Now 
suppose  you  want  a  man  to  leave  a  hacienda,  you  will 
give  him  the  account  of  what  he  owes  (the  carta 
cuenta)  and  with  this  the  man  will  walk  about  until 
he  finds  another  hacendado  who  will  pay  the  sum, 
that  is  to  say,  will  buy  the  slave.  He  does  not  crudely 
give  100  dollars  or  200  dollars  or  500  dollars  for  the 
man;  he  gives  that  money  for  the  chains.  It  has 
been  known  to  happen  that  a  man  throws  off  the 
chains  and  gets  his  liberty,  but  hacendados  do  not 
think  it  worth  while  taking  this  into  account  when 
purchasing.1  Their  slave  can  pay  the  debt,  and  cases 
have  been  known — a  man  of  Don  Ignacio's  not  only 
paid  this  money,  but  gave  several  hundred  pesos  for 
a  church  bell — yet  as  their  emolument  is  75  centavos 
(Is.  6d.)  to  a  peso  (2s.)  daily  and  the  family  must  be 
supported,  and  the  Indian  has  no  more  idea  of  thrift 
than  any  butterfly,  it  follows  that  he  does  not  fre- 
quently endeavour  to  release  himself  by  paying.  He 
can  run  away  ;  ah  yes,  but  very  probably  he  will 
come  back  a  broken  butterfly.  All  over  Yucatan 
are  people  who  go  hunting  for  the  fugitives  and  who 
are  dedicated  solely  to  the  chase  ;  one  of  the  biggest 
of  these  hunters  is  an  erstwhile  Government  official, 
Benigno  Palma  Moreno,  whose  head  office  is  in  Merida, 
near  that  of  the  jefe  politico.  Just  as  it  is  not  custom- 

1  '  I  must  expect  to  beat  hemp  in  Bridewell  all  the  days  of  my 
life.'— Terence's  '  Phormio,'  Act  II. ;  translated  by  Echard. 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  149 


ary  to  employ  the  Spanish  words  for  '  buy  '  and 
e  sell '  and  6  slave,'  so  is  the  word  for  6  hunter  '  not 
applied  to  this  Benigno.  He  is  called  '  cohechador, 
which  means  the  '  briber  '  and  appears  to  indicate 
that  he  does  not  use  violence.  He  enters  any  house 
without  an  order  from  the  magistrate,  although  this 
is  illegal  and  the  law  says  that  the  magistrate  must  go 
himself  and  take  his  secretary.  Yucatan  is  ill-adapted 
for  a  refugee  ;  there  is  no  fruit  for  him  upon  the  trees, 
there  are  no  springs,  no  rivers,  and  except  if  he  can 
cross  into  Quintana  Roo,  where  the  wild  Indians  will 
assist  him,  he  will  certainly  be  caught.  Suppose  he 
passes  through  a  town,  he  runs  the  risk  of  being  shot 
by  a  policeman  (as  occurred  at  Motul,  for  example, 
while  I  was  in  Yucatan — and  as  the  reputable 
newspaper  made  only  one  allusion  to  the  matter  we 
may  surmise  that  the  Governor  was  not  inactive) ; 
now  the  shooting  was  illegal,  and  because  in  Mexico 
there  is  no  law  against  a  refugee,  nor  can  you  be 
imprisoned  for  non-payment  of  a  debt.  Well,  if  our 
fugitive  is  not  illegally  seized  by  the  hunter  and  is 
not  illegally  shot  by  policemen  he  may  still  be 
captured  by  the  servants  of  the  hacienda,  as  occurred 
some  fourteen  years  ago  near  Tekax  when  the  slave 
resisted,  was  decapitated,  had  his  body  flung  on  one 
side  of  the  road,  his  head  upon  the  other,  and  his  head 
at  all  events  escaped  the  last  indignity  of  being  eaten 
by  the  zopilotes,  for  a  charitable  dog  was  passing  by 
and  rescued  it  and  brought  it  into  Tekax.  By  the 
laws  of  Mexico  this  treatment  of  the  slave  was 
reprehensible,  and  I  can  testify  that  Seiior  Manuel 
Cirerol,  his  owner  and  destroyer,  was  not  left  un- 
punished. Cirerol's  own  person  stayed  intact,  save 
from  the  million  tongues  that  do  not  think  the  person 
should  be  loved  unwisely  by  the  daughter  of  a  former 


150      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


mistress  who  in  her  time  never  gave  herself  to  anyone 
but  Cirerol.  He  flourishes  his  green  old  age  in 
Tacubaya  near  the  capital,  and,  in  Cromwell's 
phrase,  'we  should  not  hear  a  dog  bark  at 
his  going.'  He  secured  a  palace  from  Ignacio 
de  la  Torre  (son-in-law  of  Diaz),  who — but  I 
decline  to  wallow  any  longer  in  this  sexual  mud. 
Now  that  two  of  the  sons  of  Cirerol  are  slain  I  will  not 
speak  of  their  peculiarities  except  to  mention  that 
they  were  unbending  to  the  slaves.  One  of  their 
haciendas  rose  against  them,  all  the  sugar-fields  were 
burned,  the  farm  was  ravaged  and  one  half  the 
Yucatecan  troops  which  had  been  sent  to  save  them 
showed,  by  their  behaviour  in  the  field,  their  sympathy 
with  the  maltreated  slaves.  Another  hacendado  owns 
a  slave  called  Chi  who  has  forgotten  those  long,  weary 
fourteen  years  in  which  he  waited  for  his  father's 
death  to  be  avenged.  ...  So  much  for  refugees. 
It  will  be  taken  as  a  truth  that  they  have  little  chance, 
and  it  is  only  the  courageous  and  more  desperate 
who  try.  They  know  what  punishment  awaits  them, 
not  alone  from  hunters  and  policemen,  but  from 
people  of  a  higher  grade  :  the  Cirerols  allow  300 
pesos  (£30)  a  month  to  the  jefe  politico  of  the  district 
and  he  does  their  will.  Suppose  the  refugee  is  haled 
off  to  the  hacienda,  he  is  flogged.  I  have  so  great  a 
pile  of  documents  that  I  will  not  select  one  hacendado 
who  is  no  worse  than  his  brethren.  Let  me  mention 
that  the  slaves  of  Yaxche,  which  is  quite  a  show  farm 
near  to  Merida,  are  flogged  if  they  go  into  Merida 
without  permission  from  the  major-domo.  These  men 
have  no  wish  to  fly,  but  those  who  have  and  win  to 
Merida  do  not  find  all  their  troubles  ended.  I  will 
give  one  from  a  multitude  of  cases,  rendering  as  far 
as  possible  the  simple  language  of  the  document  :■ — 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  151 


On  the  19th  of  October,  1910,  it  being  nine  o'clock  at 
night,  there  came  into  my  house  which  is  marked  with 
the  number  330  of  the  street  number  59,  the  citizen 
Miguel  Burgos,  labourer  of  the  hacienda  San  Isidro. 
The  motive  which  made  him  tramp  to  the  city  at  these 
hours  was  because  the  overseer,  Senor  Vicente  Aguilar, 
had  beaten  him  from  six  o'clock.  As  this  overseer  is 
accustomed  to  maltreat  the  wretched  people  of  this 
hacienda  and  afterwards  to  have  them  locked  up  in  the 
neighbouring  village  of  Conkal,  with  the  knowledge  of 
his  master  Senor  Pablo  Aguilar,  and  even  if  they  should 
be  wounded  the  authorities  won't  listen  to  the  poor 
who  are  complaining  of  their  wounds,  and  the  masters 
in  their  turn  do  nothing  but  give  the  authorities  bad 
information  of  the  slave,  and  so  you  have  the  unjust 
punishment  which  they  receive  with  aching  of  their 
soul.  Referring  to  what  was  done  to  Burgos  to  be  able 
to  obtain  justice,  and  seeing  that  he  had  three  wounds 
in  the  head,  various  blows  on  the  shoulders  and  arms, 
and  more  on  the  fingers,  he  had  to  fly  in  these  hours ; 
and  as  he  is  my  brother-in-law,  as  soon  as  it  was  day 
that  which  I  did  was  to  take  the  necessary  steps  to 
present  him  to  justice.  With  the  help  of  a  generous 
advocate  we  succeeded  in  presenting  him  to  the  criminal 
judge,  Senor  Don  Joaquin  Patron  Villamil.  This  judge 
gave  us  justice  and  there  went  by  fifteen  days  without 
us  being  able  to  clear  up  the  deed,  as  it  was  necessary 
to  have  several  witnesses  the  judge  was  asking  for.  And 
as  these  witnesses  were  slaves  of  the  hacienda  they  were 
notified  and  threatened  cruelty  so  that  they  should  not 
speak  the  truth,  and  thus  they  got  no  punishment  what- 
ever. And  we  could  not  get  justice  on  account  of  this. 
When  there  had  gone  by  two  months  from  when  he  left 
the  hacienda,  Burgos  was  pursued ;  the  owner  asked  the 
help  of  the  authorities,  and  with  one  who  is  thought  to 
be  a  secret  officer  he  could  see  where  and  in  what  part 
Burgos  was  working  and  they  got  so  far  as  to  extract 
him  from  the  very  house  where  he  was  working.  And 
at  once  the  captain  and  other  helpers  came  to  find  him 
and  to  take  him  to  the  Mejorada  police-station,  and  on 


152      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


the  next  day  he  was  passed  into  the  station  of  San 
Sebastian  where  he  was  after  a  week  drafted  into  the 
National  Guard.  And  with  the  activity  of  our  gene- 
rous advocate  we  gained,  though  late,  his  coming  out. 
And  in  this  style  are  many  cases  in  our  State. 

We  have  established  then  that  slaves  who  run 
away,  although  they  have  a  perfect  right  to  do 
so,  have  to  face  considerable  risks.  The  other 
door  to  liberty  is  to  pay  off  the  debt,  and  this, 
as  we  have  shown,  they  can  but  rarely  do.  In 
former  days,  before  the  rise  in  henequen,  the 
slave  had  greater  leisure  and  more  opportunities 
for  gaining  money.  Nowadays  he  will  be  well 
advised  if  he  is  reconciled  to  bear  this  burden  all  his 
life.  It  starts  with  the  poor  fellow's  marriage,  which 
he  is  persuaded  to  embark  on  at  a  very  early  age,  as  he 
will  thus  be  in  the  owner's  debt  and  also  keeping  up 
the  population  of  the  hacienda.  As  expenses  rise  he 
asks  the  owner  always  for  more  money,  and  up  to  a 
certain  point  he  finds  him  very  willing.  I  heard  of  a 
hacienda  where  the  men  owe  very  little,  so  that  they 
can  leave  when  they  desire  and  do  not  have  to  run 
away  ;  but  this  is  as  exceptional  as  is  the  case  of  one 
who  is  a  foreman  on  the  farm  of  Dona  Carmen  Perez 
and  who  has  a  capital  of  8000  to  10,000  pesos,  a  house 
in  Muna,  maize  (although  his  latest  harvest  has  been 
eaten  by  the  locusts),  other  vegetables,  cattle  and  a 
family  of  sons  who  are  entirely  free.  The  over- 
whelming rule  is  for  the  slaves  to  be  in  debt  and  to 
regard  it  as  a  part  of  their  existence.  Thus  they  are 
restrained  from  leaving.  If  they  were  not  so  ridicu- 
lously honest  they  would  leave,  regardless  of  the 
debt  which  has  been  forced  upon  them.  Workers  who 
come  into  Yucatan  from  the  interior  of  the  Republic 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  153 


know  that  by  the  laws  they  need  not  honour  such  a 
debt,  and  as  they  would  not  do  so  the  proprietors  of 
haciendas  will  not  lend  them  a  centavo.  But  the 
Maya  4  is  an  honest  man,'  writes  Don  Ignacio  Peon, 
'  and  very  rarely  will  deny  his  debt.'  ...  I  may 
have  most  peculiar  ideas,  but  I  believe  that  if  you 
do  your  utmost  to  keep  all  your  slaves  in  a  condition 
of  most  abject  ignorance  so  that  they  do  not  know 
the  value  of  their  labour,  and  accept,  without  the 
shadow  of  a  question,  whatsoever  pittance  you  bestow 
— well,  I  believe  that  you  are  coming  perilously  near 
to  stealing.  '  And  the  Indian  is  aware,'  writes 
Don  Ignacio,  6  that  by  the  law  he  can  deny  the 
debt.  He  is  convinced,  though,  that  he  would  be 
stealing.' 

So  the  slaves  we  buy  when  we  secure  the  chains 
are  not  in  the  least  likely  to  escape  us.  If  you  fear 
that  they  will  disregard  the  debt  and  if  your  scruples 
will  not  let  you  chase  them  should  they  go,  then 
you  had  better  keep  them  posted  as  to  the  militia 
[guardia  national],  which  they  detest  and  which  they 
can  avoid  by  staying  on  the  hacienda.  You  might  also 
mention  that  if  they  should  brave  the  horrors  once,  it 
easily  may  happen  that  they  will  be  called  upon  to 
brave  them  once  again,  as  the  authorities  do  not  pay 
overmuch  attention  to  the  card  which  certifies  that 
so-and-so  has  done  his  duty.  Then  there  is  another 
weapon  which  is  for  the  boys  who  are  not  yet  indebted, 
are  not  slaves.  A  hacendado  told  me  how  he  had 
prevailed  upon  the  parents  of  a  boy  whose  inclination 
was  to  be  a  blacksmith  in  the  city.  '  He  will  earn 
much  more,'  the  righteous  hacendado  said,  6  but  then 
he  will  look  down  upon  his  father  and  his  mother.' 
And  they  hung  their  heads.  '  But  more  than  that,' 
the  hacendado  added,  c  I  can  tell  you  something 


154      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


more  which  he  will  do.  The  hacienda  is  a  moral  place, 
but  Merida  is  not.  How  would  you  like  your  son  to 
have  three  women  ?  '  And  they  shook  their  heads. 
Of  course,  there  was  the  possibility  that  he  would 
not  look  down  upon  his  parents  and  that  he  would  be 
contented  with  his  wife.  '  But  I  was  doing  well,'  the 
hacendado  said  to  me,  '  and  now  the  fellow  is  at 
work  upon  my  hacienda  very  happily.'  There  is 
another  weapon  still,  a  splendid  weapon,  and  that  is 
the  love  our  Indian  feels  towards  his  birthplace. 
Where  the  bones  of  his  beloved  lie  there  does  he  want 
to  live  and  even  if  the  bones  of  his  own  body  have 
been  dislocated  by  a  flogging.  .  .  .  Sometimes,  if  the 
man  is  lazy  or  in  other  ways  incorrigible,  it  will  be  a 
good  idea  if  you  let  him  go  and  tell  the  people  who 
are  interested  in  such  things  that  every  year  a  certain 
number  leave  your  farm — whatever  be  the  case  with 
other  farms — quite  unmolested.  You  will  thus  have 
something  to  reply  if  they  should  form  a  bad  impres- 
sion of  you,  having  heard  that  you  are  one  of  those 
who  will  not  let  an  Indian  pay  his  debt  and  leave.  .  .  . 
You  have  your  human  purchase  as  securely  as  the 
cattle.  With  regard  to  those  who  sell,  they  either  give 
the  carta  cuenta  to  the  man  so  that  he  may  himself 
look  out  for  buyers — this  is  naturally  not  a  common 
system,  as  the  hacendados  will  be  most  reluctant,  save 
if  their  finances  force  it  on  them,  to  deplete  the  farm 
— or  else  they  will  dispose  of  all  their  men,  together 
with  the  farm.  It  is  not  usual  to  say  that  on  a  property 
there  are  a  hundred  men  who  will  perhaps  remain, 
but  in  the  many  brokers'  inventories  which  I  saw,  it 
stated  that  there  was  so  much  of  henequen,  so  many 
head  of  cattle  and  so  many  servants  and  so  many 
boys  (not  yet  enslaved).  There  is  no  hacendado  who 
would  buy  a  farm  except  he  could  also  buy  the  men. 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  155 


He  takes  a  quantity  of  guns  and  cloth  to  make  his 
entry  smooth,  but  if  the  people  should  not  stay  he 
would  set  the  machinery  in  motion  :  hunters  and 
policemen  and  the  higher  Government  officials  and 
the  faithful  of  his  slaves.  .  .  .  We  have  seen  that 
Indians  do  not  move  with  readiness  from  that  place 
where  they  first  beheld  the  glaring  light  of  Yucatan. 
It  is  the  habit  of  a  certain  man  of  law,  Don  Juan 
Molina  (Olegario's  brother),  to  put  down  the  slaves 
when  he  is  making  out  a  mortgage  and  by  law 
you  can  have  in  a  mortgage  only  that  which  is  im- 
movable. 

So  much  for  buying  and  for  selling,  whose  existence 
I  believe  that  I  have  shown,  securing  thereby  Don 
Ignacio's  approbation  when  I  say  that  there  is  slavery 
in  Yucatan.  Moreover,  I  believe  that  working 
en  fagina,  as  prevails  in  many  parts  of  Yucatan,  in 
haciendas  and  in  towns  and  other  places — that  is, 
being  forced  to  give  your  work  for  several  hours  a 
day  without  remuneration — I  believe  that  by  the 
Anti- Slavery  and  Aborigines  Protection  Society,  as 
well  as  by  most  other  people,  this  will  be  considered 
slavery.  Moreover,  I  believe  that  if  an  adult  lets 
himself  be  flogged  illegally,  maybe  because  he  has  not 
kissed  the  hand  of  his  employer's  clerk — I  learn  from 
Don  Ignacio  that  this  is  what  has  happened  to  some 
people  who  declined  to  kiss  the  hand  of  Senor  Manuel 
Rios,  clerk  of  Don  Ignacio's  tyrant  brother — I  believe 
that  if  a  man  submits  his  body  in  this  fashion  to 
another  man  he  is  a  slave. 


156      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


II 

Don  Ignacio' s  letter  (continued) 

Don  Ignacio  is  not  a  blind  supporter  of  the  present 
system — which  has  turned  the  Mayas  into  cattle. 
Yucatan  is  full  of  famous  ruins,  but  the  crumbling 
caracol  of  Chichen  Itza  and  the  colour  which  is  fading 
quickly  from  that  splendid  wall  at  Acanceh  do  not 
inspire  in  me  as  much  resentment ;  no,  nor  does  the 
lamentable  state  of  Uxmal  where  a  section  of  the 
House  of  Turtles  fell  to  dust  the  other  day ;  the  plight 
of  these  extraordinary  ruins  does  not  cause  as  much 
resentment  as  the  pitiful  condition  of  the  Mayas, 
the  descendants  of  the  builders.  4  What  the  Indians 
want,'  says  Don  Ignacio,  '  is  a  little  education.'  He 
himself  would  be  prepared  to  educate  if  all  the  other 
hacendados  were  obliged  by  Government  to  do  so. 
As  it  is,  the  Indian  on  a  farm  of  Don  Ignacio' s  is 
instructed  in  the  Christian  doctrine,  nothing  else. 
Some  other  farms,  whose  owners  are  religious, 
inculcate  the  same  course  of  study,  but  the  editor  of 
'  La  Verdad '  ( '  The  Truth ' ) — an  organ  which  is  pub- 
lished somewhat  furtively  out  of  the  basement  of  the 
Austrian  archbishop's  so-called  Palace — tells  me  that 
in  far  the  greater  number  of  the  farms  there  is  a  total 
lack  of  education.  Not  that  they  are  made  to  toil 
until  they  drop,  as  I  remember  seeing  in  a  somewhat 
lurid  picture  that  would  have  been  more  convincing 
if  the  people  had  been  clad  as  Mayas,  not  as  Mexicans 
of  the  interior.  No ;  when  they  have  done  their  daily 
work  they  are  allowed  to  go  a-hunting  or,  if  they 
prefer,  they  can  go  hunting  with  the  moon.  Of  course, 
no  guns  are  given  to  the  stalwart  Yaquis  who  were 
carried  from  the  valleys  of  Sonora  and  are  prisoners  of 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  157 


war  (men,  women,  children  and  the  child  unborn — all 
prisoners  of  war).  These  cannot  be  allowed  to  have  a 
gun.  When  possible  they  seize  one,  to  the  uncon- 
cealed dismay  of  all  the  local  troops  who,  being 
brought  down  in  the  train,  have  had  the  first  firing 
practice  of  their  lives  en  route  out  of  the  window — so 
that  Yaquis  after  they  have  done  their  work  have 
usually  nothing  else  to  do  than  dream  about  their 
distant  valleys  that,  alas  !  were  all  too  fertile.  They 
can  watch  the  Mayas  going  in  pursuit  of  deer  or 
mountain  pig — the  Mayas  who  have  had  three 
centuries  of  servitude  and  certainly  would  not  have 
made  such  violent  resistance  to  the  introduction  of 
new  landlords,  modern  landlords  in  Sonora.  And 
these  gentle  Mayas  are  not  unsuccessful  in  the  chase  ; 
it  is  indeed  the  chase,  for  they  will  follow  deer  or  bird 
until  they  sit  them  down,  and  then — then  the  poor 
creature  is  in  peril.  Many  hours  are  thus  employed, 
not  only  to  the  Indian's  satisfaction  but  the  hacen- 
dado's,  since  the  Maya  is  in  this  way  kept  from  mis- 
chief. '  Once,'  writes  a  Yucatecan  artisan — I  cannot 
give  his  name — 4  once  I  had  occasion  to  be  in  one  of 
these  haciendas  in  which  there  was  a  Mexican  who 
did  not  know  much,  but  at  least  how  to  read  and 
write,  though  not  correctly.  This  Mexican  bought  a 
book,  one  of  those  children's  reading-books,  and  with 
it  he  began  to  give  lessons  to  one  of  these  poor 
wretches  with  whom  he  had  some  friendship.  When 
he  began  to  read  the  first  lessons  he  had  the  mis- 
fortune that  the  master  noticed  it,  and  immediately 
and  in  a  very  cruel  manner  he  put  the  Mexican  out  of 
the  hacienda,  so  that  he  should  not  go  on  teaching.' 

From  Isidro  Mendicuti  I  have  heard  a  ghastly  case — 
one  of  a  multitude.  This  Don  Isidro,  a  most  brilliant 
person,  was  within  a  fortnight  of  his  death  when  I  first 


158      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


met  him.  Leaning  on  his  elbow,  with  his  battered 
head  thrust  out  towards  me  from  the  hammock — he 
kept  swaying  in  the  hammock  to  and  fro.  After  a 
few  minutes  it  was  not  the  scaly  hands  you  noticed, 
nor  the  scaly  feet ;  you  did  not  wonder  how  the  man 
could  speak  with  such  a  rigid,  artificial  jaw  ;  you 
ceased  to  wonder  how  the  nostril  which  no  longer  was 
a  nostril  could  retain  so  large  a  piece  of  pendent 
cotton- wool ;  you  did  not  speculate  on  how  much  he 
could  see  through  his  dark  glasses,  for  above  them  was 
a  shade  which  hung  from  half-way  up  the  forehead  and 
the  forehead's  other  half  was  loftier  than  that  of  many 
men.  Isidro  Mendicuti,  dying  in  his  pale  brown  ham- 
mock, speaking  with  a  fire  all  afternoon,  swaying  to  and 
fro — poor  leper.  He  maintained  that  we  have  liberty 
if  we  have  chances  to  improve,  and  as  the  Maya  has 
no  chance  he  is  deprived  of  liberty.  A  boy  had  been 
entrusted  to  him  by  his  mother-in-law,  who  had  some 
business  with  a  hacienda.  She  was  there  acquainted 
with  a  woman  who,  on  dying,  gave  the  boy  to  her,  and 
she  in  turn  delivered  him  into  Isidro's  hands.  This 
boy  was  taught  to  read  and  write;  he  learned  so 
rapidly  and  with  such  eagerness  that  he  detested 
Sundays,  when  there  was  no  teacher.  With  a  few 
centavos  that  they  gave  him  he  acquired  a  flute,  and 
in  two  days  could  imitate  the  birds.  The  hacienda 
changed  proprietors  ;  the  new  one — I  am  glad  to  say 
he  lost  his  money,  though  he  still  looks  prosperous — 
began  to  search  for  the  ex-hacienda  boy.  He  traced 
him  to  Isidro,  asked  for  him  and  was  refused.  He  then 
began  to  persecute  the  mother-in-law,  so  that  she 
finally  besought  Isidro  to  send  back  the  lad.  He  did 
so.  Six  months  later  he  was  sitting  at  his  mother-in- 
law's,  the  boy  was  in  the  house,  he  was  brought  to  see 
his  former  patron,  he  had  turned  into  a  perfect 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  159 


savage.  He  that  might  have  been  an  artist  was  no 
doubt  a  skilful  cutter  of  the  leaves  of  henequen. 

It  will  be  understood  that  I  do  not  insinuate  that 
every  hacendado  is  iniquitous.  Some  here  and  there 
consider  that  the  human  beings  under  them  are 
capable  of  cultivation.  They  have  schools  for  boys 
and  girls.  In  one  large  farm  I  visited  the  girls'  class 
was  in  operation,  and  among  them,  making  letters,  was 
a  small  Corean  child. 1  Some  hacendados  are  as  good 
to  their  own  Mayas  as  they  have  to  be  to  the  Coreans. 
They  establish  schools,  and  in  one  farm  I  know  there 
is  a  band,  while  this  remarkable  establishment  is  not 
run  by  the  major-domo  in  so  far  as  punishing  the 
Mayas  is  concerned.  These  people  vote  themselves 
for  one  man,  usually  an  old  man,  who  with  two 
assistants  has  to  judge  the  sinners,  and  the  most 
sagacious  sentence  is  that  for  his  drunkenness — the 
usual  fault — the  culprit  shall  be  made  to  do  some 
work  for  the  benefit  of  the  community.  But  altogether 
on  the  haciendas  it  is  far  too  much  a  question  of  the 
owner's  temperament  or  that  of  his  administrator. 
If  these  happen  to  be  disagreeable  the  slave  will  have 
a  vista  of  sad  days  before  him ;  if  they  happen  to  be 
pleasant  then  the  Indians  if  you  ask  them  whether  life 
is  good  will  not  say  '  Yes,'  for  they  have  suffered  so 
much  that  they  are  afraid  to  talk  and  they  will  not 
commit  themselves  to  such  a  downright  answer. 

1  Her  father  probably  would  spend  his  leisure  moments  with  a 
wooden  sword  attacking  some  imaginary  Japanese.  Large  bodies  of 
Coreans  used  to  practise  for  the  coming  contest  and  assume  the  most 
ferocious  attitudes,  whereas  at  other  times  they  are  the  mildest  people. 
For  example,  those  who  have  turned  Protestants  in  Merida  live  nearly 
next  door  to  the  Pagans,  and  there  is  no  anger  lost  between  them. 
Now  that  they  are  under  the  dominion  of  Japan  the  government  of 
that  great  country  keeps  an  eye  upon  them,  sending  secret  agents  in 
the  guise  of  ice-cream  vendors  (who  observe  if  any  youth  is  being 
trained  with  wooden  swords  into  a  possible  assassin  of  another  Ito), 
and,  moreover,  sending  diplomats  who  cause  the  hacendados  to  be  good 
to  their  Coreans. 


160      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


What  they  say  is  4  Biz  huale,1  which  means  6  It  will 
be  so.' 

s  The  laws  of  Mexico  have  always  striven  against 
slavery,'  says  Don  Ignacio, 4  and  the  Indians  enjoy  the 
same  rights  as  the  whites,  and  have  the  same  property 
rights  as  any  other  citizen.'  The  laws  of  Mexico  are 
excellent,  and  far  too  excellent,  it  seems,  for  daily  use. 
Not  Indians  alone  but  all  the  people  have  to  lead  a 
lawless  life.  4  The  judges,  though  one  hears  the 
contrary,'  says  Don  Ignacio,  4  do  pay  attention  to  the 
Indians'  complaints,  because  they  have  judicial 
responsibility  and  if  one  often  sees  them  sending 
back  complainants  to  the  hacienda  it  is  not  because 
they  were  not  heard  in  justice,  but  because  they  are 
disarmed  by  guarantees  of  better  treatment  which 
the  owner  offers  them  and  they  desist  from  the  com- 
plaint.' .  .  .  But  never  has  a  judge  been  punished 
for  neglect  of  duty,  rather  for  excessive  conscientious- 
ness has  he  been  frowned  upon  by  his  superiors.  And 
these  authorities  in  little  towns,  the  jefes  politicos, 
are  they  so  often  conscientious  ?  Don  Ignacio 
informed  me  that  a  certain  one  in  southern  Yucatan 
was  very  good,  they  had  been  colleagues  long  ago  at 
school.  A  fortnight  later  I  had  ascertained  that  this 
official  took  300  pesos  monthly  from  a  neighbouring 
hacienda,  and  of  course  complied  with  all  the  hacen- 
dado's  wishes.   Don  Ignacio  was  not  astonished  ! 

The  morality,  no  doubt,  as  Don  Ignacio  says,  is 
better  on  a  farm  than  in  the  town,  where  living  is  too 
indiscriminate.  In  a  monogamous  society  the  way- 
ward instincts  of  a  man  should  be  restricted,  but 
his  instincts  should  not  absolutely  be  repressed. 
Near  Izamal,  on  Miguel  Gonzalez  Soso's  farm,  a  boy 
became  enamoured  of  a  girl  who  lived  on  the  adjacent 
farm,  the  property  of  Quintin  Canto.   As  the  custom 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  161 


is,  the  lad,  his  father  and  his  mother  went  with 
presents  to  the  other  farm.  But  the  major-domo, 
when  he  learned  that  they  intended  to  deprive  his 
farm  of  one  who  might  bear  many  slaves,  distrusted 
them  [et  dona  ferentes]  and  commanded  them,  as 
well  as  the  bride  and  her  family,  to  the  lock-up 
[calabozo],  one  of  which  there  is  on  every  farm. 
Subsequently  they  were  haled  to  Merida  and  stowed 
away  in  Senor  Canto's  city  calabozo,  which  the  private 
mansions  of  that  pretty  town  are  often  furnished 
with.  A  lawyer  set  to  work,  withstood  the  offer  of  a 
bribe  from  Senor  Canto,  and  the  jefe  politico  insisted, 
under  threat  of  an  exposure,  that  the  boy  and  girl 
should  be  allowed  to  marry.  And  how  many  boys 
and  girls  have  been  divided  ?  Wealthy  houses  in 
the  town  have  usually  got  some  thirty  female  slaves 
[domesticas]  who  are  not  servants  as  we  understand 
it,  because  they  are  not  paid.  They  are  fed,  of  course, 
and  clothed  ;  beyond  that  they  receive  no  wages 
and  they  have  no  liberty.  They  may  not  leave  the 
house  except  to  go  to  Mass,  when  they  are  under  a  head- 
woman's  charge.  They  naturally  do  not  speak  to  any- 
one while  they  are  going  to  and  from  the  church, 
and  so  they  spend  their  lives.  Within  the  house  they 
do  the  customary  work,  and  when  their  owner  thinks 
it  opportune  they  travel  to  the  hacienda  and  are  there 
provided  with  a  husband.  Those  alone  who  serve 
a  master  who  is  not  a  hacendado  have  some  liberty 
to  choose  their  mate.  And  Don  Ignacio  assures  me 
that  the  Indian  is  not  abject,  nor  degraded.  I  prefer 
to  think  that  these  three  centuries  of  slavery  have 
left  an  imprint.  Once  the  Mayas  were  a  noble  race. 
And  now  the  hacendado  says  that  they  are  indolent, 
that  the  prosperity  of  Yucatan  would  vanish  if  the 
Mayas  were  not  forced  to  labour  ;  they  would  live 

M 


162      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


on  sunlight  and  a  patch  of  beans.  Not  so  when  they 
were  dragging  stones  up  the  gigantic  pyramid  of 
Chichen  Itza.  Who  would  not  be  indolent  when  there 
is  never  any  hope  of  better  things  ?  .  .  .  They  are 
a  gentle  people,  from  the  Spanish  conquest  they  have 
been  imposed  upon.  And  sometimes,  out  of  despera- 
tion, they  imposed  upon  their  conquerors.  The  friar 
Motolinia  (in  the  '  Historia  de  los  Indios  de  Nueva 
Espana')  tells  how  they  were  forced,  by  means  of 
blows,  to  bring  their  idols  that  were  putrifying  and 
forgotten  underground,  and  certain  Indians  '  were 
so  much  tormented  that  in  truth  they  made  new 
idols,  which  they  gave  up  to  the  Spaniards  so  that 
they  should  be  no  more  maltreated.'  ...  I  am 
much  afraid  that  Spain  does  not  export  such  estimable 
priests  to-day  as  was  the  friar  Motolinia.  Rarely  do 
they  learn  the  Maya  language,  though  it  has  a  very 
limited  vocabulary  and  is  not  more  unpronounceable 
than  are  the  Kaffir  dialects.  In  consequence,  the 
clergy  that  attend  the  haciendas  have,  in  almost 
every  instance,  to  be  natives,  and  the  more 
exacting  class  of  Yucatecos  do  not  lean  to  this 
profession  which  is  unendowed.  The  priest  is 
at  the  orders  of  the  hacendado  and  will  fulminate 
against  the  wickedness  of  theft  if  it  so  happens 
that  the  owner  has  been  missing  an  unusual  amount 
of  property.  '  You  must  obey  your  master,'  says 
the  priest,  6  or  you  will  go  to  Hell.'  No  doubt 
this  is  a  dark  allusion  to  the  neighbouring  hacendado, 
who  will  be  prepared  to  shelter  refugees.  And  when 
I  say  the  priest  is  at  the  orders  of  the  hacendado,  I 
should  mention — it  is  only  fair — that  hacendados  will, 
at  the  request  of  priests,  give  half  a  dozen  blows  to 
anyone  who  has  not  learned  his  Christian  doctrine. 
It  is  wrong  to  steal,  and  even  if  it  only  be  a  piece  of 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  163 


wood  each  country  has  its  penalties,  and  Yucatan 
rewards  this  crime  with  eight  years  of  incarceration. 
But  a  man  to  whom  this  happened  was  invited  to 
become  a  servant  in  the  hacienda  and  he  might  have 
chosen  that  alternative. 

4  The  slavery — oh,  I  shouldn't  like  it  to  be  known 
who  told  you  this  ;  they'll  punish  me  cruelly  and 
make  my  burden  ten  times  heavier  than  it  was — you 
see  if  a  man,  if  a  poor  man  that  has  no  money  '  (a 
native  of  British  dominion,  as  he  called  it,  was 
speaking  to  me),  6  you  go  to  one  of  these  rich  men  in 
the  town  and  ask  him  to  lend  you  200  or  300  dollars  ; 
while  you  are  a  young  and  strong  man  he  quickly 
give  you — lend  you — that  portion,  whatever  you  ask 
for,  and  after  that  you  are  taken  to  one  of  the  hemp 
plantations  and  they  give  you  a  wife.  As  soon  as  you 
get  to  the  farm  he  give  you  a  woman,  that  is  for  those 
who  are  slaves  on  the  farm.  I  have  never  been 
indebted.'  He  who  told  me  this  was  not  a  model  of 
respectability.  4 1  did  escape  from  prison  twice,'  he 
said,  4  here,  just  here.  The  first  time  they  take  me 
because  I  was  drunk,  the  second  time  because  the 
constable  wanted  me  to  remove  from  the  spot  where  I 
was  standing,  so  that  he  may  have  the  chance  to 
ravish  a  woman,  and  I  would  not.  That  time  they 
didn't  ask  me  anything,  but  only  sentenced  me  for 
ten  days.  It  was  very  easy  to  get  away  ;  they  take 
me  out  to  work  and  the  constable  was  drunk — oh,  yes, 
each  time.  You  see  the  custom  is  if  you  behave 
yourself  quite  good  they  take  you  out  in  the  street  to 
work ;  they  give  you  facilities.  ...  I  speak  the 
language  pretty  clean.  I  speak  the  Spanish  language 
from  end  to  end.'  .  .  .  But  I  regret  to  say  that  this 
man  proved  to  be  a  liar.  He  informed  me  that  I  should 
find  two  men  in  the  hospital  who  had  been  flogged 


164      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


next  door,  inside  the  Penitenciary,  and  now  could 
only  lie  in  the  position  of  a  sleeping  soldier,  and  there 
was  a  soldier  over  each  of  them.  What  I  discovered 
was  a  man  who  had  tuberculosis,  and  a  boy  from  the 
correctional  school — each  of  them,  being  criminal,  was 
guarded  by  a  yawning  soldier.  But  if  this  F.  A. 
MacDonald  of  the  dusky  countenance  was  tropical 
in  his  imagination,  I  am  not  compelled,  I  think,  to 
put  him  wholly  overboard,  since  I  have  solid  evidence 
for  certain  of  his  statements.  The  proprietor  of  one 
of  Mexico's  big  journals  says  he  has  been  told 
repeatedly  of  villages  wherein  the  representative  of 
Government  maintains  the  olden  custom  of  the 
jus  primce  noctis,  frequently  securing  it  by  sending 
off  the  bridegroom1  on  a  trumped-up  charge  to  prison 
or  the  army.  '  The  rule  is,'  said  MacDonald,  '  that 
at  four  o'clock  in  the  evening  those  slaves  have  to 
go  and  kiss  the  hand  of  their  master  or  mistress  that 
is  in  the  farm.  Otherwise,  who  does  not  present  him- 
self is  entitled  to  six  lashes,  with  the  exception  of 
those  farms  I  told  you  about.  J.  M.  Guerra — he 
gives  very  good  treatment,  and  the  second  good  farm 
is  Alvaro  Peon's;  he  has  got  many  farms.  The  next 
thing,  the  rule  of  the  farm  is  that  the  encargado 
[manager]  and  the  master  himself  take  the  girl  and 
later  on  he  calls  a  young  fellow  and  marries  him  to  the 
girl.'  In  continuation  of  what  he  said  with  regard  to 
new-comers  :  '  The  owner  of  the  farm  give  you  a 
woman — 6 6  This  is  your  wife,"  as  they  would  say.  The 
woman  is  born  on  the  farm,  you  see — is  to  that  owner 
as  a  horse  or  cow.  They  take  you  to  the  house  where 
she  is  living.' 

1  So  the  lover  of  a  nursemaid  in  Tampico  was  deported,  since  the 
family  in  which  she  served  were  anxious  not  to  lose  her,  and  were 
influential. 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  165 


But  the  natives'  servitude  is  not  of  yesterday. 
There  are  extant  some  letters  to  the  kings  of  Spain, 
in  which  the  monks  denounce  as  an  excessive  toil  the 
carrying  by  natives  of  Campeche  wood  down  to  the 
sea ;  the  kings  prevented  it.  Some  other  letters 
caused  the  kings  to  stop  the  exploitation  of  the 
indigo  ponds,  which  produce  fevers  and  a  plague  of 
flies  '  so  that  no  man  can  eat  his  bread  in  peace.' 
Then  the  monks  declared  that  another  system  had 
been  found — by  offering  the  Mayas  houses  and  some 
more  inducements  in  the  haciendas — which  would 
cause  the  natives  to  recognise  the  owner  as  their 
master,  and  this  would  produce  a  kind  of  slavery.  '  I 
was  trying  to  sell  to  this  gentleman  a  gas-engine,'  said 
to  me  a  merchant  in  Merida,  who  had  some  English, 
4  and  I  was  speaking  always  with  the  manager,  trying 
to  sell  to  Mr.  X  a  gas-engine,  and  I  was  always  trying 
to  show  him  the  benefit,  the  economy  of  the  gas-engine, 
and  I  was  always  after  him.  The  manager  told  me 
one  day  that  it  was  useless  to  insist,  because  to  this 
man,  to  the  proprietor,  the  wood  consumed  in  the 
steam-engine  did  not  cost  him  anything,  because  the — 
the — the  Indians  of  the  plantation  had  the  obligation 
to  bring  a  certain  quantity  of  lumber  or  wood  for  the 
engine  without  receiving  any  pay,  and  that  was  the 
reason  why  he  was  not  interested  in  looking  at  the 
economy  of  the  gas  plant.  That's  how  I  knew  about 
this,  his  procedure.' 

But  however  much  the  Maya  be  imposed  upon, 
however  little  of  the  wealth  of  Yucatan — a  wealth 
which  would  not  be  without  him — comes  into  his 
pocket,  he  prefers,  says  Don  Ignacio,  to  have  the 
right  to  cultivate  his  patch — his  milpa,  as  they  call  it. 
'  Twice  a  year  the  hacendado  stops  the  work  upon 
his  farm  so  that  they  may  have  time  for  private 


166      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


labour.  ...  In  his  gun  and  in  his  milpa  lies  the 
Indian's  happiness.'  Sometimes,  though,  it  is  not 
permitted  that  he  sell  the  beans  and  maize  and  chile 
without  having  his  proprietor's  consent.  Thus  at 
Chilip,  in  a  farm  I  know  of.  Usually  when  the  farm 
is  near  to  Merida,  in  the  henequen  zone,  there  is  not 
land  enough  for  any  milpa  save  that  of  the  owner  ; 
and  where  all  the  Mayas  have  their  holding,  as  for 
instance  at  Chacmay,  Don  Ignacio's  fine  old  hacienda, 
the  delight  with  which  they  cultivate  it  is  a  proof,  if 
that  were  necessary,  that  they  are  not  fond  of  their 
accustomed  labour — call  it  slavery  or  labour — in  the 
fields  of  heneque'n. 


Ill 

Don  Olegario,  etc. 

There  is  a  movement  to  set  up  a  statue  in  the  pretty 
town  of  Merida  to  Dona  Isabel  Molina.  You  may 
leap  to  the  conclusion  that  she  has  directed,  as  it 
were,  the  wind  ;  beneficently  blowing  on  to  Yucatan 
this  memorable  wind  has  done  in  recent  months  a 
work  most  marvellous,  for  it  has  penetrated  to  my 
lady's  chamber.  Into  that  part  of  the  house  where 
nothing  ever  happened  save  the  toil  of  making 
Amurath  succeed  to  Amurath,  where  nothing  was 
discussed  save  that  which  indirectly  or  directly  had 
to  do  with  this  procedure,  whose  value  is  less  certain 
than  its  age,  a  wind  has  blown.  Madero's  revolution 
sang  a  vigorous,  brave  message  from  Chihuahua,  and 
there  was  no  Mexican  so  listless  and  no  Mexican  so 
much  preoccupied  as  not  to  hear  the  waking  of  their 
people.   Someone  had  to  be  Madero's  minister  among 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  167 


the  Yucatecan  women.  But  it  was  not  Dona  Isabel. 
The  statue  is  to  be  erected  since  she  is  the  only  wife 
of  a  Molina  who  has  had  no  child. 

This  is  one  of  my  most  disagreeable  chapters  and, 
I  shall  be  told,  among  the  most  unnecessary.  Pecca- 
dillos, doubtless,  can  be  seen  in  the  Molina  family, 
but  can  they  not  be  seen  in  other  families  of  Yucatan 
and  elsewhere  ?  It  was  in  poor  taste  when  Don 
Audomaro,  hunting  for  a  slave  who  had  escaped  to 
Merida,  knocked  at  a  certain  lady's  house  and 
threatened  her — Dona  Mauricia  Esquivel — that  if 
the  slave  was  not  forthcoming  she  would  be  consigned 
4  d  las  recogidas,'  that  is  to  say,  she  would  be  gathered 
to  the  herd  of  prostitutes  where  they  were  expiating 
their  profession.  On  the  next  day,  at  four  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  he  came  back,  and  in  the  presence  of  his 
coachman  shouted  to  the  lady  what  her  fate  would 
be.  ...  I  will  not  affirm  that  Audomaro  is  unique  ; 
several  other  men  on  earth  have  in  these  circum- 
stances had  the  same  idea,  two  or  three  of  them  have 
even  uttered  it,  but  he — the  brother  of  Don  Olegario 
— could  have  it  put  in  execution.  Thus  it  is  with  all 
the  family.  As  men  go  in  this  makeshift  of  a  world, 
they  are  perhaps  not  absolutely  of  the  lowest,  but 
in  Yucatan  they  occupy  positions  of  the  highest, 
and  for  these  they  are  unfit.  Not  members  of  the 
ruling  class,  Don  Olegario  has  elevated  them  to  high 
positions  where  they  have  done  damage.  If  we  should 
recount  the  less  endearing  traits  of  the  wife  of  so-and- 
so,  then  our  words,  having  been  read,  would  be  flung 
upon  the  dustheap  as  mere  negligible  gossip.  We 
are  dealing,  though,  with  Caesar's  wife.  And  some 
of  the  Molinas,  such  as  the  young  doctor  Don  Ignacio, 
who  have  not  been  lifted  to  a  high  position,  probably 
are  only  waiting  for  a  leisure  moment  of  Don  Olegario. 


168      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


For  instance,  you  may  not  be  much  disturbed  by 
two  of  Don  Luis  Demetrio  Molina's  crimes.  The 
point,  however,  is  that  he  (Olegario's  nephew),  having 
failed  in  private  undertakings,  was  created  jefe 
politico  of  Merida.  (1)  In  the  village  Tixcancal  were 
some  thirty  or  forty  Indians  who  had  lived  there 
many  years,  after  having  been  pacified.  Molina 
wanted  people  at  a  farm  of  his,  and  swore  these 
Indians  were  the  allies  of  a  village  that  had  risen  in 
revolt ;  he  took  them  forcibly  to  Kankanba,  a  maize 
farm,  and  when  by  the  treatment  there  they  had 
grown  tame  enough  he  took  them  to  a  farm  of  hene- 
quSn,  a  league  from  Merida.  He  subsequently  was 
obliged  to  sell  the  farms,  and  certain  of  the  Indians 
fled.  Their  village,  Tixcancal,  they  could  not  go  to, 
for  the  jefe  would  have  sent  them  back  to  whosoever 
bought  Molina's  farms.  And  probably  they  joined 
the  hostile  independent  Indians  of  the  south  and  told 
them  of  the  ways  of  Yucatan.  (2)  A  man  to  whom 
Molina  owed  100  pesos  for  some  lime  requested  that 
an  aged  person  who  had  accidentally  been  taken  for  a 
soldier  in  the  State  troop  should  be  liberated.  This  was 
done,  and  afterwards  Molina  said  he  was  astonished 
that  in  view  of  his  good  services  in  this  affair  he 
should  be  asked  to  pay  the  100  pesos.  Again,  you 
may  not  be  indignant  over  the  ineptitude  of  Doctor 
Don  August o  Molina  (Olegario's  brother).  We  will 
not  concern  ourselves  with  his  technical  errors, 
although  they  are  said  to  be  within  the  comprehension 
of  a  layman ;  but  those  people  who  would  be  in  the 
good  graces  of  Olegario  beseech  this  doctor  to  attend 
them.  He  is  pious.  6  We  have  to  thank  the  Blessed 
Virgin  or  one  of  the  Saints,  I  know  not  which  one,' 
he  said  in  my  hearing,  and  the  father  of  a  sick  child 
whom  he  was  addressing  said  that  he  would  like  to 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  169 

have  some  details  of  her  convalescence.  Don  Augusto, 
with  his  hands  held  up  as  if  he  were  a  Moslem  praying, 
edged  towards  the  door.  '  Perhaps  it  is  an  inter- 
cession of  a  larger  Saint,'  he  said.  The  sick  child's 
father,  rolling  in  his  hammock,  cursed  a  little.  4 1 
can  tell  you,'  quoth  the  doctor  as  he  stood  upon  the 
threshold,  '  it  is  owing  to  some  act  of  virtue.'  And  he 
vanished.  It  may  well  be  said  that  if  this  kind  of 
doctor  is  employed,  one  should  either  be  susceptible 
to  this  kind  of  treatment  or  have  a  sturdy  constitu- 
tion. Maybe  he  will  not  damage  such  a  patient,  but 
as  Olegario  appointed  him  to  be  Director  of  the  School 
of  Medicine  and  Surgery,  one  would  suppose  that  he  is 
causing  general  damage.  By  the  way,  both  he  and 
the  aforementioned  Don  Luis  were  put  by  Olegario 
into  the  local  Congress,  which  does  nothing  and  is 
paid  for  it.  Perhaps  this  doctor  will  not  rouse  your 
wrath,  but  it  is  only  Yucatecos  who  will  be  invited 
to  subscribe  to  Dona  Isabel's  monument.  Apropos 
of  piety,  there  is  Don  Jose  Trinidad  Molina  (also 
Olegario's  brother),  who  was,  until  recently,  the 
President  of  the  Railways  of  Yucatan.  He  could  not 
bear  to  have  a  Presbyterian  in  his  employ,  and  when 
the  station-master  of  Motul  adopted  that  religion, 
after  having  been  for  many  years  a  blameless  station- 
master,  Don  Jose  Trinidad  retired  him  instantly. 
A  member  of  the  Church  of  Yucatan  confesses,  and 
the  priests  of  Yucatan  are  usually  at  the  service  of 
the  man's  employer.  This  may  seem  a  monstrous 
thing  to  say,  but  the  proven  sins  of  Yucatecan  priests 
are  still  more  heinous,  and  as  I  have  spoken  of  them 
elsewhere,  and  I  quite  appreciate  the  difficulties 
which  surround  the  excellent  Austro-Spanish  Arch- 
bishop, let  this  be  enough.  .  .  .  Many  hacendados 
would,  in  this  particular,  behave  as  did  Don  Jose 


170      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Trinidad  ;  and  he  may  have  been  such  a  brilliant 
man  of  business  that  the  railways  would  have  reaped 
advantage  from  his  supervision.  But  he  was  put  in 
through  Olegario,  and  was  so  harmful  that  the  General 
Manager  (who  is  the  coolest  Englishman  in  the 
tropics)  would  have  resigned  if  Don  Jose  had  been 
continued  in  his  office — and  so  a  friend  of  Olegario' s 
was  substituted. 

There  are  people  just  as  ignorant  of  Mayan  ruins 
as  is  Don  Andres  Solis,  but  he  (though  he  was  merely 
the  son  of  a  cousin  of  Olegario' s)  became  the  In- 
spector. A  year  or  two  ago  he  informed  a  couple  of 
English  travellers  that  he  had  never  been  to  Chichen 
Itza,  but  that  he  had  satisfactory  photographs.  And 
meanwhile  Chichen  Itza,  the  marvellous,  is  crumbling 
to  the  ground.  For  lack  of  some  intelligence  (not 
much)  the  fragile  portions  are  left  unsupported.  If 
the  Inspector  wishes  to  keep  up-to-date  he  will  soon 
have  to  be  supplied  with  other  photographs.  There 
are  people  just  as  clever  as  Don  Avelino  Montes 
(Olegario's  son-in-law),  but  he  is  able  with  the  help 
of  Olegario  to  damage  Yucatan.  It  was  resolved, 
five  years  ago,  in  order  to  improve  the  price  of 
henequen,  that  for  a  time  the  hacendados  should  not 
sell — by  far  the  greatest  buyer  is  the  International 
Harvester  Co.  of  the  United  States.  This  company 
has  contracts  which  oblige  it  to  deliver  henequen, 
so  that  the  hacendados  were  not  only  tending  to 
increase  the  cost,  but  they  were  also  placing  the 
International  in  a  dilemma.  Then  the  Yucatecan 
banks,  who  are  among  the  most  important  hacendados, 
were  commanded  by  the  Minister  of  Finance  to  hold 
their  henequen  no  longer.  Thus  they  sold,  and  all  the 
others  had  to  sell.  The  Minister  of  Finance  was, 
through  the  President,  performing  what  Don  Olegario 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  171 


(then  Minister  of  Trade)  requested,  and  Don 
Olegario  was  doing  what  the  International  requested, 
for  he  is  their  agent  and  the  partner  of  his  son-in-law, 
Don  Avelino.  .  .  .  There  are  people  still  at  large 
who  have  done  just  as  much  financial  damage  to  a 
country  as  the  Spanish  Vice-Consul,  Don  Rogelio 
Suarez,  has  done  to  Yucatan.  He  also  is  a  son-in-law 
of  Olegario.  It  was  his  method  to  refuse  to  discount 
bills  at  the  official  rate  ;  the  applicant  would  then 
repair  to  Don  Rogelio' s  residence  and  any  bill  what- 
ever would  be  taken  (at  another  rate).  The  bank  it 
was  that  died.  In  other  cases  when  a  man  has  acted 
in  this  fashion  and  has  been  detected  he  must  pack 
up  for  another  field  ;  but  Don  Rogelio  has  been  con- 
soled with  two  monopolies.  (Of  course,  as  son-in-law 
of  Olegario  he  could  not  go  to  prison.)  He  imports 
such  superlative  cattle  that  the  slaughter-houses 
cannot  patronise  another  merchant — not  that  the 
other  merchants  made  no  effort,  but  they  did  not 
happen  to  be  relatives  of  Olegario.  The  Spaniard 
was  rewarded,  too,  with  the  monopoly  of  dynamite. 
His  firm  (M.  J.  Sanchez  and  Co.)  possess  in  Yucatan 
what  the  cientificos  possess  in  other  parts  of  the 
Republic.  These  made  a  law  which  put  upon  imported 
dynamite  a  duty  of  about  3  pesos  for  every  25  lbs.  ; 
because,  they  said,  the  manufacture  of  this  article 
should  be  in  Governmental  hands.  They  built  a 
factory  in  Torreon,  and  Don  Porfirio's  son  was  one 
of  the  directors.  At  the  same  time  it  was  settled 
that  if  for  any  reason  they  should  not  be  making 
dynamite,  then  they  should  have  permission  to 
import  it,  free  of  duty.  When  the  place  in  Torreon 
exploded — evil  tongues,  of  course,  said  that  it  was 
done  purposely ;  but  this  has  not  been  proved, 
because  the  newspapers  preserved  a  silence,  not 


172      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


reporting  even  whether  anyone  was  slain.  Since  this 
occurred,  the  cientificos  (represented  in  Yucatan  by 
Sanchez  and  Co.)  have  imported  dynamite.  As  bread 
in  France,  so  dynamite  in  Mexico — they  said  the 
public  must  be  protected  ;  at  first  the  price  was  low, 
but  it  has  risen.  Suppose  that  a  competitor  imports, 
they  kill  him  by  lowering  of  prices. 

But,  after  all,  the  most  injurious  to  Yucatan  have 
been  the  late  Don  Audomaro  and  Don  Olegario 
himself.  Don  Audomaro  was  the  guardian  of  the 
welfare  of  all  the  Indians  of  Chuburna,  Cholul, 
Chablekal,  Cenotillo,  Dzitas,  etc.,  and  with  the  object 
of  becoming  a  more  potent  guardian  he  consulted 
with  Don  Olegario  as  to  the  nomination  of  the  jefe 
politico,  the  military  chief,  the  municipal  judge  and 
so  forth.  He  was  strongly  of  opinion  that  his  way 
of  dealing  with  the  Mayas  was  the  best,  and  as  some 
other  men  were  strongly  of  a  different  opinion  he  was 
always  in  an  atmosphere  of  controversy.  Sometimes 
he  would  use  the  pen,  as  in  his  letters  to  4  El  Penin- 
sular,' more  often  he  would  use  the  sword — the  sword 
of  injustice.  Being  the  brother  of  Don  Olegario  he 
would  not  permit  his  name,  as  occasionally  happened 
with  the  names  of  other  hacendados,  to  be  any  way 
connected  with  the  sufferings  or  death  of  slaves. 
When  a  paper  called  6  El  Universal '  made  exposure 
of  the  sort  of  life  which,  on  the  farm  of  Don  Manuel 
Casares,  was  the  lot  of  five  contracted  labourers,  then 
it  did  not  occur  to  anyone  to  put  the  editor  in  prison. 
On  the  contrary,  these  men  were  liberated.  The 
Supreme  Court,  in  this  instance,  let  the  counsel  for 
these  five  illegally  contracted  men  say  what  he  had 
to  say.  But  when  this  counsel  (Don  Tomas  Perez 
Ponce,  who  has  suffered  much  for  his  opinions)  tried 
to  help  a  slave,  the  victim  of  Don  Audomaro,  he  was 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  173 


charged  with  being  insolent,  and  straightway  was 
thrown  into  prison.  Both  the  third  criminal  judge 
and  the  Honourable  [sic]  Revising  Court,  who  each 
of  them  violated  several  articles  of  the  Constitution, 
lent  themselves  to  Audomaro  ;  and  as  it  chanced 
that  Olegario  was  at  this  time  a  candidate  for  re- 
election to  the  post  of  Governor,  the  tyrant  family 
was  not  displeased  at  knowing  that  Don  Tomas 
Perez  Ponce,  who  considered  that  this  candidature 
was  most  poisonous  for  Yucatan,  would  be  removed 
from  the  electoral  campaign.  The  result  he  would 
not  alter,  as  he  would  not  count  the  votes,  but  possibly 
he  might  arouse  the  people  to  some  lawless  act.  The 
slave,  Antonio  Canche,  was  not  treated  worse  than 
all  the  thousands  under  Audomaro  ;  he  simply  was 
not  paid  enough  to  live  on  ;  he  was  compelled  to  work 
gratuitously  during  two  or  three  hours  every  day, 
and  he  was  not  allowed  to  go  beyond  the  hacienda  s 
boundaries.  He  and  his  family  escaped  to  Merida, 
where  he  besought  Don  Tomas  Perez  Ponce  to  assist 
them  ;  in  a  few  days  he  came  back  to  Perez  Ponce, 
saying  that  Don  Audomaro  had  discovered  him  and 
had  been  twice  to  seize  him.  Perez  Ponce  therefore 
took  the  man  into  his  house.  Canche  dictated  to 
him  an  exact  account  of  what  had  been  the  life  at 
Xcumpich,  and  as  Audomaro  naturally  had  not  given 
him  an  education  and  he  could  not  sign  his  name, 
Don  Tomas  signed  on  his  behalf.  The  document  was 
published — Audomaro  flew  to  several  lawyers  for  a 
way  in  which  to  punish  Perez  Ponce  ;  but  they  told 
him  that  the  document  was  only  signed  at  the  request 
of  Canche,  neither  was  there  in  it  one  offensive  word, 
not  one  immoderate  expression.  Finally  Don  Audo- 
maro had  recourse  to  the  third  criminal  judge, 
Ignacio  Hernandez,  who  proceeded  to  give  all  the 


174      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


necessary  orders,  as,  for  instance,  that  the  printing- 
house  of  Senor  Escoffie  should  be  searched,  and  that 
his  wife,  the  cashier  and  the  bookkeeper  should  be 
examined.  After  this  he  put  Don  Tomas  Perez  Ponce 
into  prison,  saying  that  he  had  been  insolent  to 
Audomaro.  And  from  prison  Perez  Ponce  wrote  a 
letter  wherein  he  pointed  out  that  according  to  Article 
151  of  the  Criminal  Code  it  is  the  duty  of  a  judge 
of  first  instance  to  apply  the  necessary  zeal  in  order 
to  lay  bare  the  truth  and  ascertain  the  guilty  parties 
when  it  is  alleged  that  a  transgression  has  occurred. 
This  judge  did  not  take  any  notice  of  the  document 
arraigning  Audomaro  ;  when  at  last  he  did  take 
notice — two  months  after  it  was  published — he  said 
merely  that  it  was  an  insult  to  Don  Audomaro.  And 
the  higher  court  confirmed  his  judgment.  This  is  not 
to  say  that  judges  can  be  always  bought  in  Yucatan. 
When  Don  Buenaventura  Herrera  published  a  long 
letter  in  the  4  Revista  de  Merida,'  denouncing  certain 
employes  of  the  hacienda  San  Antonio,  in  the  dis- 
trict of  Tixkokob,  for  having  flogged  and  imprisoned 
an  unfortunate  native,  then  Don  Buenaventura  was 
not  cast  into  prison.  San  Antonio  did  not  belong  to 
a  Molina.  .  .  .  '  Oh,  but  you  have  let  your  mud- 
rake  show  one  incident  of  Audomaro's  life.  Now, 

really  !  '  I  can  hear  them  say.    If  they  will  not 

believe  that  Audomaro  was  a  miserable  person  I 
invite  them — as  in  Mexico  I  heard  a  deputy  invite 
his  irrepressible  critics  in  the  strangers'  gallery — to 
meet  me  in  the  street ;  I  will  regale  them  with  the 
documents  I  hold  concerning  Audomaro — when  they 
have  a  week  to  spare.  In  this  place  one  example 
more  will,  I  believe,  be  thought  sufficient.  The 
labourer,  Francisco  Tuyim,  left  the  farm  of  Tzabcan 
or  San  Angel,  before  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  Don 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  175 


Audomaro ;  and  Gertrudis  Tuyim,  his  brother,  a 
one-armed  man,  left  the  farm  in  Don  Audomaro' s 
time,  in  order,  like  Francisco,  to  work  in  the 
orchard  of  Don  Raymundo  Camara ;  and  there 
he  stayed  some  time,  while  his  previous  employer 
would  not  send  the  wages  that  were  due  to 
him.  The  ancient  father  of  the  Tuyims,  who  was 
at  Don  Audomaro' s  farm,  became  so  seriously 
ill  that  his  two  sons  begged  Senor  Camara  to 
let  them  have  such  money  as  their  father  owed  to 
Don  Audomaro,  as  they  wanted  to  withdraw  him 
from  that  farm  and  care  for  his  last  days  ;  but 
Molina's  major-domo  would  not  have  them  set  foot 
in  the  hacienda,  nor  would  he  accept  the  money 
which  they  brought ;  they  then  resolved  to  take 
their  father  out  by  night,  and  this  they  did,  inside  a 
hammock.  Molina  made  complaint  to  Don  Ray- 
mundo Camara,  who  in  reply  sent  him  an  invitation 
to  the  orchard,  where  the  old  man  lay  in  agony  and 
where  he  died  that  night.  Molina  used  this  oppor- 
tunity to  urge  upon  Gertrudis  Tuyim  that  he  should 
return  to  Tzabcan.  He  declined.  ...  So  far  as  I 
can  see,  the  one  good  point  about  Don  Audomaro  is 
that  he  is  dead. 

Why  should  this  family  be  so  unpopular  ?  They 
have  been  generous.  Don  Olegario  did  not  accept 
a  salary  for  being  Governor,  and  now  there  is  the 
doctor,  Don  Ignacio  Molina,  who  attends  the  in- 
digent for  almost  nothing.  Yet  when  Yucatecos  talk 
about  this  hated  family  they  never  seem  to  make 
allowances  because  of  this  good  attribute  ;  and  it 
would  be  impossible  for  them  to  plead  that  they  are 
ignorant,  as  Senor  Olegario  Molina  made  no  secret 
of  his  beautiful  idea,  and  Don  Ignacio  goes  to  the 
expense  of  several  pesos  so  that  everyone  may  learn 


176      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


about  his  prodigality.  The  common  patient  is 
supposed  to  pay,  but  when  this  is  impracticable  he 
may  write  a  letter,  and  the  lucky  comrade  has  no 
further  obligation.  He  does  not,  as  we  have  hinted, 
pay  the  newspaper ;  and  the  physician  generally 
even  writes  his  letter  for  him.  Here  is  the  translation 
of  a  notice  which  appeared  on  7th  March,  1911,  in 
the  '  Revista  de  Merida  '  : — 

[Communicated] 

OBLATION  OF  GRATITUDE 

To  the  Senor  Dr.  Don  Ignacio  Molina  C.1 

On  writing  these  lines,  symbols  of  thankfulness  for 
the  grand  paladin  of  science,  I  feel  that  in  my  soul 
there  is  engraving  itself  with  gilt  letters  the  profound 
thankfulness  which  from  the  happy  moment  when  he 
made  me  cross  without  difficulty  the  lake  of  Acheron 
I  came  to  him  professing  and  shall  follow  him  professing 
to  eternity.  This  titan,  this  exalted  one  to  whom  to- 
day I  am  directing  these  sentences,  enigmas  of  gratitude, 
is  the  most  illustrious  Senor  Dr.  Don  Ignacio  Molina  C, 
he  who  with  his  inexhaustible  science  saved  me  from  a 
premature  death,  wherefore  to-day  making  use  of  this 
opportunity  I  take  the  liberty  to  recommend  him  to 
the  indulgent  public  which  knows  how  to  appreciate  all 
that  which  has  enough  of  the  noble  and  elevated. 

Petrona  S.  Salazar  de  B. 

1  This  is  a  good  opportunity  for  explaining  the  system  of  surnames 
in  Mexico.  The  late  Vice-President  was  Jose  Maria  Pino  Suarez, 
so  that  his  father's  surname  was  Pino  and  his  mother's  Suarez.  He 
could  have  omitted  the  latter  or  have  used  merely  the  initial,  as  does 
the  above  Ignacio  Molina  C.  (Usually  it  depends  upon  the  name's 
renown.)  The  wife  of  a  man  whose  father's  surname  begins  with  B. 
signs  with  her  maiden  name  and  the  addition  *  de  B.,'  or  else  say  '  de 
Balsas.'  This  latter  method  is  the  most  common,  and  then  the  maiden 
name  shrinks  usually  into  an  initial.  Thus  the  wife  of  Francisco 
Madero  was  formerly  known  as  Sara  Perez  and,  after  her  marriage, 
Sara  P.  de  Madero. 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  177 


Whether  or  not  her  dissolution  would  have  been 
premature,  Petrona — if,  indeed,  she  wrote  this  letter 
— has  not  yet  arrived  at  arranging  her  thoughts. 
On  the  other  hand,  she  may  not  be  entirely  con- 
valescent. ...  So  the  Molinas  can  be  generous.  I  am 
quite  aware  that  people  will  inform  me  that  I  am 
deceived,  that  even  if  Don  Olegario,  with  musical 
accompaniment,  gave  up  his  salary,  he  turned  the 
Palace  into  a  gigantic  home  for  geese  and  he  persuaded 
most  of  them  to  lay  him  golden  eggs.  As  an  example, 
he  acquired  the  two  or  three  large  haciendas  of  Ayala, 
the  philanthropist,  who  died  and  left  the  proceeds 
of  them  to  the  poor.  When  they  were  auctioned, 
nobody  was  rash  enough  to  bid  against  the  Governor, 
and  he  secured  them  at  a  price  that  was  so  low  that 
other  people  would  have  paid  it  for  the  contents  of 
the  orchard — this  is  not  the  truth,  but  it  is  nearer 
than  one  usually  gets.  Ayala,  the  philanthropist, 
would  have  been  sorry,  for  the  poor  were  not  enriched. 
.  .  .  Don  Olegario  gave  up  his  Governmental  income, 
and  if  you  are  in  a  carping  mood  you  will  be  saying 
that  he  did  not  merit  a  centavo,  since  he  made  his 
Congress  pass  a  law  restricting  lotteries  ;  and  now 
the  National,  which  is  the  only  lottery  in  Yucatan — 
except,  of  course,  Don  Olegario' s  own  flourishing 
concerns — is  subject  to  the  grievous  tax  imposed  on 
all  that  were  established  after  Congress  made  the  law. 
I  know  not  if  the  law  was  passed  unanimously  ; 
but  a  little  time  before  I  disembarked  on  Yucatan, 
two  members  of  the  local  legislature  actually  differed 
from  their  colleagues  and — and  said  so.  The  Republic 
saw  these  things  reported  in  the  newspapers  and 
rubbed  its  eyes.  '  Where  are  we  going  to  ?  '  it  gasped. 
One  was  expected  to  reply,  '  Chaos  '  or  4  Revolu- 
tion ! '    Well,  and  was  it  not  revolting  that  a  man, 

N 


178      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


two  men,  selected  by  the  Governor  in  preference  to 
thousands,  that  these  men  should  have  the  salary 
and  venture  to  oppose  their  patron  ?  Was  it  not  to 
be  a  bandit  ?  How  could  any  Governor  be  asked  to 
keep  his  State  in  good  condition  if  the  very  members 
of  the  Congress  thwarted  him  ?  But  Senor  Olegario 
Molina  had  no  reason  to  resent  the  measures  that 
were  passed  affecting  lotteries.  Thus  he  could  easily 
afford,  the  critics  say,  to  send  his  Governmental, 
moderate  emoluments  to  hospitals.  Yet  as  a 
proof  that  he  is  generous  I  give  upon  the  title- 
page  a  photograph  of  nickel  money  (obverse  and 
reverse)  which  circulates  or  circulated  at  his  hacienda, 
Sacnicte.  You  will  observe  from  the  device  O.T. 
that  in  this  farm  he  and  his  prudent  brother 
Trinidad  were  partners.    6  So  that  Audomaro,'  you 

may  say,  6  did  not  indulge  in  all  the  sins.    He  ' 

But  you  are  wrong.  A  broadsheet  was  issued  in 
Merida  by  one  Felipe  Rivera  of  Chuburna,  telling 
how  Don  Audomaro  stopped  outside  his  shop  and 
bitterly  reproached  and  drove  away  some  of  the 
hacienda  labourers  who  happened  to  be  buying  from 
Rivera  when  Don  Audomaro  had  himself  a  shop 
inside  the  hacienda.  So  indignant  was  he  that  his 
slaves  should  patronise  a  cheaper  shop  that  he  abused 
Rivera,  and  in  such  unmeasured  language  that  the 
shopkeeper  withdrew  into  his  house.  Don  Audo- 
maro, more  exasperated,  came  in  after  him,  and 
disregarding  that  his  wife  and  family  were  present — 
or,  maybe,  infuriated  when  he  saw  a  woman  who,  to 
quote  the  broadsheet,  '  so  vigorously  had  sustained 
her  rights  against  the  iniquitous  pretensions  '  (some 
of  the  French  pre- Revolution  customs  have  been 
carried  over  the  Atlantic) — he  poured  out  a  furious 
tirade.  His  wrath  against  Rivera  had  in  some  degree 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  179 


arisen  at  his  inability  to  make  the  civil  judge,  Her- 
nando Ancona,  say  that  the  property  and  garden  of 
one  Bernabe  Argaez  y  Milanes,  Rivera's  stepson, 
was,  in  fact,  the  property  of  Audomaro.  He  had 
let  this  Bernabe  live  peacefully  for  several  years  and 
make  his  land  more  valuable  ;  then  Don  Olegario 
became  the  Governor — but  in  this  case  the  judge  did 
not  allow  himself  to  be  affected. 

As  for  Olegario  and  Trinidad,  they  did  not  wish  to 
have  their  servants  handle  ordinary  coins  which  are 
never  disinfected  and  may  pass  through  hands  that  have 
tuberculosis.  So  they  went  to  all  the  inconvenience 
of  making  money  which  would  not  go  forth  into  the 
tainted  world,  as  only  one  shop,  that  of  Sacnicte, 
would  accept  it.  What  the  shop  accepts  it  for  I 
cannot  say,  because  there  is  no  value  stamped  upon 
it.  Still,  it  is  impossible  to  think  of  everything,  and 
maybe  while  they  were  arranging  the  design  they 
were  a  trifle  harassed  by  the  thought  that  it  was 
not  a  legal  operation.  And  a  Governor  should  do 
his  utmost  to  be  in  the  law.  They  have  a  way  of 
telling  you  in  Yucatan  that  there  was  nothing  for  it 
but  to  coin  money,  since  the  Government  did  not 
provide  them  with  sufficient  of  the  low  denomina- 
tions. And  the  hacendados  often  used  to  bore  a  hole 
into  the  Government's  pesos,  for  if  one  has  got  into 
the  way  of  seeing  the  more  humble  coins  have  a 
limited  but  healthy  circulation — why  should  there 
not  be  some  supervising  of  the  vagrant  peso  ?  This 
is  merely  prudence,  but  when  I  applied  the  epithet 
to  brother  Trinidad  I  had  in  mind  a  notable  economy 
for  which  they  have  to  thank  him  at  the  hospital. 
He  being  head  of  the  committee,  it  did  not  seem 
right  to  him  that  so  much  milk  should  be  consumed, 
and  he  reduced  the  quantities.   He  is  no  doctor,  but 


180      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 

he  said  that  it  was  common  sense  that  sick  men 
should  not  drink  so  much. 

IV 

Some  Documents 

Out  of  my  collection  of  the  documents  which  deal 
with  certain  aspects  of  the  Yucatecan  slavery  I  shall 
not  publish  any  that  the  hacendados  might  with  reason 
call  superfluous.  To  certain  folk  an  accusation  if  it  be 
repeated  fifty  times  is  stronger  than  if  it  be  merely 
stated  once.  To  folk  whom  we  may  think  more 
valuable  and  whose  time  is  of  greater  value  such  a 
repetition  is  a  weakness.  They  will  ask  for  one 
authentic  instance,  under  the  proviso  that  it  is  not  of 
a  freakish,  isolated  character.  Now  with  regard  to 
flogging,  which  is  practised  on  by  far  the  greater 
number  of  the  haciendas  and  is  quite  illegal,  I  shall  give 
one  case  which  happened  in  a  hacienda  then  belonging 
to  Rogelio  Suarez,  Vice-Consul  of  Spain  and  son-in- 
law  of  the  all-powerful  Molina.  Elsewhere  I  have 
dealt  with  Senor  Suarez,  showing  that  a  slave  upon 
his  hacienda  is  not  to  be  pitied  less  than  are  the 
Spanish  slaves  of  circumstance.  I  hope  the  Spanish 
Foreign  Minister  will  soon  select  a  better  representa- 
tive. 

Here  are  the  details  of  the  flogging  (translated  as 
closely  as  possible)  : — 

Jose  Andrade,  Notary  public  of  the  State  of  Yucatan, 
in  the  Mexican  Republic — 

I  certify  that  at  three  o'clock  of  the  afternoon  of 
this  day,  before  the  witnesses  who  will  sign  at  the  foot, 
7?as  present  the  citizen  Tomas  Tec,  to  which  name  I 


1 

V 


Tornas  Tec. 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  181 


answer,  declaring  that  I  am  21  years  of  age,  married, 
an  inhabitant  of  Noh-nayum,  and  I  say  :  that  on 
Saturday  the  seventh  of  this  month,  when  I  was  work- 
ing in  the  drying  yard  of  the  hacienda  Noh-nayum, 
Canuto  Tec  gave  me  notice  that  I  must  immediately 
present  myself  in  the  agent's  office,  an  order  which  I 
obeyed  at  once ;  and  when  I  was  in  the  office  I  was 
insulted  by  the  agent ;  when  I  asked  the  reason  for 
these  insults  the  agent  answered  by  assaulting  me  and 
whipping  me  in  the  face  with  a  soga  vaquera,  with  which 
he  wounded  the  upper  lip,  and  even  now  this  is  much 
inflamed  ;  then  I  was  locked  up  in  the  dungeon  of  the 
hacienda,  where  I  stayed  from  eight  in  the  morning  until 
midday,  when  I  was  taken  out  and  again  conducted  to 
the  office ;  there  the  agent  went  on  reviling  me  and 
threatening  me,  saying  that  Senor  Rogelio  Suarez,  owner 
of  the  hacienda,  had  given  the  order  that  they  should 
flog  all  those  who  did  not  obey  the  commands  with 
docility.  Thereupon  the  agent,  taking  a  soga  which  had 
been  soaked,  rang  his  bell  for  one  of  the  cowherds  of  the 
hacienda  and  there  came  Marcelino  Chim,  half-brother 
of  me  the  declarer.  That  the  said  Marcelino  Chim 
received  an  order  to  keep  down  his  brother  with  his 
hands,  and  I  was  ordered  to  place  myself  on  my  knees, 
whereupon  I  was  given  twenty-five  lashes,  whose  marks 
can  still  be  seen  very  easily  although  2  days  have 
passed.  I,  the  declarer,  affirm  that  all  this  was  done 
in  the  presence  of  Dionisio  Chuc  and  a  native  of  the 
Canary  Islands,  whose  name  I  do  not  know,  but  who  is 
the  Administrator  of  this  hacienda  Noh-nayum. 

These  deeds  I  have  related,  declaring  that  I  cannot 
sign,  this  being  done  at  my  request  by  the  citizen  Don 
Jose  G.  Corrales,  before  the  witnesses,  the  citizens 
Higinio  Febles  and  Eusebio  Gonzalez,  neighbours  who 
are  present  and  adults. 

And  at  the  request  of  him  who  is  interested,  for  the 
purposes  that  may  suit  him,  I  deliver  this  at  Merida  on 
the  ninth  day  of  October  of  1905. 

[Here  follow  the  signatures  of  Corrales,  the  witnesses 
and  Andrade.] 


182      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


The  photograph  was  taken  at  the  same  time,  two 
days  after  the  flogging.  It  may  be  surmised  that  as 
this  example  dates  from  1905  I  have  no  later  instances. 
I  have  selected  this  one  as  the  hacendado  is  a  man  of 
standing  and  the  slave  was  photographed.  These  two 
conditions  are  fulfilled  in  other  cases,  but  they  do  not 
often  come  together.  When  a  Maya  has  been  flogged 
he  does  not  (in  a  thousand  cases  once)  resort  to  the 
photographer  and  to  the  notary  public.  He  does  not 
do  so  for  the  reason  that  he  is  accustomed  to  this 
treatment,  and  another  reason  is  that  notaries  are 
seldom  so  courageous  as  to  help  the  Maya  in  defiance 
of  the  hacendado :  one  or  two  have  been  humane 
and  have  been  ruined.  As  for  natives  not  resenting 
such  a  treatment  after  all  these  centuries  of  servitude, 
it  has  become  so  much  a  part  of  their  existence  that 
they  even  spare  the  hacendado  any  little  pain  he  might 
be  caused  by  giving  the  command.  An  ancient  Maya 
came  one  Monday  night  to  Manuel  de  Irabien,  a  friend 
of  mine,  who  had  come  down  to  supervise  his  brother's 
hacienda  for  a  week  or  two.  The  Maya  said  that 
having  given  way  to  drink  on  Sunday  he  had  not  done 
any  work  on  Monday  and  must  therefore  have  a 
flogging.  But  he  perfectly  agreed  with  Irabien  that 
it  would  be  more  rational  if  on  each  of  the  other  five 
days  of  the  week  he  did  a  fifth  of  that  which  he  had 
left  undone,  receiving  payment  as  if  he  had  worked 
on  Monday.  You  may  say  that  hacendados  who 
prefer  the  flogging  system  are  uneconomic.  Well, 
they  are.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  in  graver  cases,  if  it 
is  a  question  of  delivering  the  man  to  justice  and  of 
losing  him  perhaps  for  several  weeks,  they  naturally 
do  their  utmost  to  support  the  old  belief  that  the 
punishment  to  fit  the  crime  is  flogging.  Mayas  have 
become  entirely  servile,  but  the  Mexicans  from  the 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  183 


interior  of  the  Republic  are  opposed  to  flogging  and 
prefer  incarceration.  So  they  are  unpopular  among 
the  hacendados.  Sometimes  it  will  happen  that  a 
hacendado  has  the  strength  of  will  to  flog  the  Mexican, 
as,  for  example,  Juan  Torres,  who  for  ten  days  got,  for 
having  once  been  drunk,  his  five-and-twenty  lashes 
every  day  at  Cat  mis,  where  the  Cirerols  had  planted 
sugar  and  reaped  bullets.  It  would  serve  no  purpose 
if  I  should  enlarge  upon  the  variations  in  the  details. 
*  They  flog  them,' — I  am  quoting  from  a  man  who 
frequently  was  of  assistance  to  me.  He  had  had  great 
opportunities  for  observation,  seeing  that  he  was  for 
years  employed  in  the  capacity  of  visitador,  a  kind 
of  registrar  who  goes  from  farm  to  farm.  '  They  flog 
them  in  the  middle  of  the  labourers,'  he  said,  '  so  that 
they  may  take  notice.  The  rule  is  that  the  man  kneel 
down,  otherwise  they  stretch  him  over  one  of  the 
bales  of  hemp,  and  after  he  is  flogged  they  put  on 
salt  and  lime  or  sour  orange  and  put  him  in  the  prison 
until  he  is  better.  Sometimes  they  flog  them  to 
death.'  But  surely  this  is  quite  a  rare  occurrence,  as 
there  would  be  one  slave  less.  And — who  knows  ? — 
there  might  be  a  justice-loving  Mexican  who  would 
in  some  way  force  the  hacendado  to  give  monetary 
compensation  to  the  relatives,  without  it  being  such 
a  large  amount  as  in  the  case  of  Miguel  Verde.  This 
man  stood  in  an  exceptional  position,  for  his  name 
ere  they  translated  it  was  Michael  Green  and  the 
present  American  Consul  at  Veracruz  (in  which  State 
he  was  beaten  to  death  about  eleven  years  ago)  exacted 
retribution.  But  we  are  talking  of  Yucatan  and : 
'  Some  time  ago,'  this  is  an  English-speaking  merchant 
whom  I  quote,  '  one  of  Dr.  Palomeque's  servants  died 
on  account  of  a  terrible — how  you  call  that  ? — terrible 
whipping  the  manager  of  the  plantation  gave  him 


184      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


by  the  order  of  one  of  his  [the  Doctor's]  sons.  Well — let 
me  see,  when  the  manager  of  the  plantation  was — was 
whipping  the  servant  this — let  me  see — he  notified  by 
telephone  that  the  servant  was  getting  in  very  bad 
fix  on  account  of  the  whipping  and  that  he  may  die  on 
account  of  that.  He  answered  by  telephone  to  con- 
tinue the  whipping  anyway.  A  few  days  afterwards  the 
servant  died.  It  is  about  one  year  and  a  half  ago. 
Everyone  was  conversing  about  that.  .  .  .  He's 
intimate  friend  of  the  Governor.'  It  is  not  germane 
to  this  affair,  but  these  were  his  next  words  :  1  This 
man,  Palomeque,  has  very  bad  sense,  very  bad  way  of 
conducting  himself.  On  the  11th  of  August  some 
years  ago,  in  the  Government  of  Don  Carlos  Peon,  the 
people  were  shot  in  the  square  by  the  advice  of  this 
man,  that  was  Don  Carlos's  particular  friend.'  It 
would  serve  no  purpose  to  go  into  details  of  the 
floggings,  nor  to  speak  especially  about  the  women, 
who  are  sometimes  beaten  as  if  they  were  men  and 
sometimes  on  the  shoulder  by  a  foreman  who  stands 
facing  them,  another  foreman  holding  them  at  arm's 
length  at  their  back.  To  prove  that  it  is  contrary  to 
law  we  have  the  case  of  Baeza,  a  young  man  who  said 
that  he  had  flogged  an  Indian  in  self-defence  but  was 
put  into  prison  for  a  period  of  seventy-two  days.  He 
was  upon  the  opposition  side  in  politics. 

Another  document  will  give  an  insight  into  several 
phases  of  the  life  on  Yucatan  farms  : — 

Licenciate  Galbino  Puga  y  Sosa  and  Licenciate 
Camilo  Man zan ilia,  notaries  public  of  the  State,  we 
certify  :  That  sitting  in  the  house  nr  477  of  street  nr  64, 
at  the  request  of  the  Licenciate  Don  Tirso  Perez 
Ponce,  there  were  presented  to  us  the  day-labourers 
Miguel  Canche,  Asuncion  Esquivel,  Pedro  Pech,  Anas- 
tacio  Pech,  adults  and  dwellers  in  the  farm  Xcum- 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  185 


pich,  which  belongs  to  Don  Audomaro  Molina.  The 
said  labourers  declared  :  that  they  had  just  left  the 
said  farm  and  have  no  desire  to  continue  working  there, 
because  every  day  they  were  obliged  to  work  at  what 
is  known  as  faghia,  which  lasts  for  two  hours  every 
day  and  is  never  paid  for :  because  their  task  which 
is  pointed  out  to  them  after  the  fag'ma  is  very  badly 
paid,  also  this  payment  being  made  in  a  form  that  they 
dislike.  At  this  point  there  presented  themselves  like- 
wise Gertrudis  Castillo  and  Evaristo  Chacon,  also 
adults,  dwellers  at  Xcumpich,  who  made  precisely 
the  same  declarations  as  the  previous  persons  with 
respect  to  fagina  and  the  pay,  also  how  they  served 
in  the  said  farm  until  yesterday  and  have  no  desire  to 
return.  All  these  labourers  declare  that  they  were 
frequently  flogged,  there  having  been  flogged  of  those 
present  Asuncion  Esquivel,  because  he  asked  the  agent 
for  his  carta  cuenta,  Anastacio  Pech  for  having  allowed 
his  son  Loreto  to  go  to  work  outside  the  farm,  which 
action  he  believed  was  in  his  rights  as  father ;  that  he 
was  not  only  flogged  but  also  locked  up  for  eight  days 
in  one  of  the  three  dungeons  which  are  on  that  farm, 
compelling  him  at  last  to  bring  his  son  to  work  with 
him  on  the  farm.  For  cutting  a  thousand  leaves  of 
henequen  they  are  paid  25  centavos,  for  1500  they 
are  paid  62  centavos,  and  one  peso  for  cutting  2000 
leaves  :  that  very  rarely  could  they  exceed  2000,  which 
necessitates  severe  exertions,  seeing  that  it  is  demanded 
as  an  indispensable  condition  that  each  leaf  should 
measure  six  cuartas  [=126  centimetres]  and  only  those 
are  considered  which  have  this  measurement :  that 
those  which  have  not  got  this  measurement  are  not 
paid  for ;  that  if  by  an  oversight  or  by  the  necessity 
of  working  quickly  they  leave  on  a  plant  less  than  the 
twenty  leaves  that  had  been  settled,  then  as  a  punish- 
ment they  are  not  paid,  and  if  this  is  repeated  they  are 
also  flogged.  That  several  have  asked  for  their  carta 
cuenta  without  being  able  to  get  it  and  the  others,  on 
account  of  this,  have  refrained  from  asking.  That 
the  cleaners  [weeders]  receive  for  one  mecate  fifty  cents 


186      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


and  for  two  mecates  a  peso ;  but  if,  as  frequently  occurs, 
they  clean  more  than  one  mecate  but  less  than  two, 
they  are  always  paid  fifty  cents,  the  remainder  being 
for  the  benefit  of  the  owner  of  the  hacienda ;  they  add 
that  when  Don  Felipe  Rivera  had  a  shop  at  Chuburna 
they  were  prohibited  from  buying  there,  under  penalty 
of  being  flogged ;  that  both  the  agent  Antonio  Pinzdn 
and  Don  Audomaro  Molina  ordered  them  to  purchase 
only  at  the  shop  of  Desiderio  Dzib,  the  local  judge. 
That  when  they  want  to  sell  eggs,  poultry,  etc.,  the 
agent  or  the  owner  does  not  pay  what  the  servants  ask, 
but  a  lower  price  which  they  themselves  fix.  That 
there  still  exists  in  the  corridor  of  Xcumpich  a  piece 
of  wood  with  a  chain  attached  and  this  was  used  by  the 
major-domo  to  keep  in  subjection  any  of  the  servants 
who  committed  a  fault ;  although  this  is  no  longer  used 
since  the  dungeons  were  built,  one  of  those  present, 
Pedro  Pech,  declares  that  he  has  been  chained  up.  All 
those  present  affirm  that  the  price  paid  for  their  work 
was  never  fixed  by  them,  seeing  that  he  who  arranges 
the  price  is  Don  Audomaro  Molina.  They  conclude 
by  saying  that  they  left  the  hacienda  to-day. 

And  at  the  request  of  the  Licenciate  Don  Tirso  Perez 
Ponce,  we  deliver  this  in  Merida  on  the  sixteenth  of  April, 
1905,  making  it  clear  that  the  individuals  who  said 
they  had  the  above  names  belong  to  the  native  race  and 
all  of  them  speak  Spanish  with  more  or  less  perfection. 
.  .  .  Being  witnesses  the  citizens  Miguel  Gonzalez  Sosa, 
Isidro  Sierra  Jimenez,  Juan  de  Dios  Hernandez  and 
Jose  D.  Gomez,  neighbours,  here  present  and  adults, 
who  as  agents  sign  with  ourselves  the  notaries. 

[There  is  a  footnote  which  recounts  some  of  the 
other  exploits  of  Don  Audomaro.  Most  of  them  refer 
to  the  imprisonment  which  happened  to  those  many 
persons  who  did  not  agree  with  him  on  land  questions. 
He  does  not  seem  to  have  imprisoned  the  local  school- 
master. Perhaps  he  took  into  consideration  that  for 
nineteen  years  that  functionary  had  been  at  his  post, 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  187 


with  honourable  mention  of  the  municipal  authorities. 
He  was  discharged.  ...  I  am  sorry  that  we  have  to 
deal  so  much  with  Don  Audomaro,  who  has  for  some 
months  been  occupying  not  more  than  six  feet  of  land.] 
Another  document  will  show  what  liberty  falls  to 
the  share  of  citizens  of  this  Republic  : — 

Jose  Andrade,  notary  public  of  the  State,  I  certify  : 
That  it  being  two  o'clock  of  the  afternoon  of  this  day 
there  was  present  before  me  Maria  Jesus  Pech,  to  which 
name  she  answers,  being  adult,  an  inhabitant  of  the 
town  of  Motul,  and  she  said :  that  it  will  be  two  years 
ago  since  there  came  to  her  house  at  daybreak  several 
soldiers  of  the  National  Guard  and  they  seized  her 
grandsons  Feliciano  and  Valentin  Alonso,  taking  them 
to  the  hacienda  San  Juan,  near  the  said  town  of  Motul. 
A  few  days  later  they  were  removed  from  there  and 
taken  to  the  town  of  Merida  for  the  following  reasons : 
Valentin  Alonso,  a  minor  then,  of  10  years  of  age,  was 
accustomed  to  go  from  the  hacienda  San  Juan  to  Motul, 
with  the  object  of  seeing  the  said  Maria  Jesus  Pech, 
his  grandmother,  who  had  been  very  ill  since  the 
morning  when  those  two  were  taken  from  her.  This 
disgusted  the  Administrator  and  he  was  sent  to  the 
Correctional  School  of  Merida.  Feliciano  Alonso 
received  from  the  Administrator  a  punishment  of 
flogging,  which  caused  him  to  come  to  his  grandmother's 
house,  where  he  was  apprehended  in  order  to  be  sent  to 
the  same  Correctional  School.  The  former  has  been  an 
inmate  of  that  establishment  for  LZ  years  and  the  latter 
for  8  months.  The  complainant  asserts  that  these 
minors  are  held  against  the  will  of  their  father,  Carlos 
Alonso,  to  whom  they  are  subject ;  he  is  a  worker  at 
the  hacienda  Chichi,  which  belongs  to  Senor  Don 
Olegario  Molina.  She  also  declares  that  Feliciano 
Alonso,  whose  age  is  now  fifteen,  has  been  promised  his 
freedom  if  he  consents  to  contract  matrimony  with 
some  woman  who  is  in  the  employ  of  the  said  hacienda 
Chichi.  The  complainant  says  that  she  knows  that 
these  minors  are  entered  in  the  Correctional  School  as 


188      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 

having  been  placed  there  at  their  father's  request, 
which  is  false.  She  manifests  that  her  object  in  relating 
these  occurrences  is  simply  with  the  hope  of  finding  a 
charitable  person  who  will  take  pity  on  her  and  her 
grandsons  and  will  help  her  in  having  them  liberated. 

Yes  !  Mexico  is  a  Republic.  .  .  .  We  have  had  a 
brief  but  a  sufficient  glance  at  Yucatan  slavery  as 
pictured  in  the  documents.  Maybe  that  my  collec- 
tion is  imperfect — it  would  anyhow  make  Sancho 
Panza  feel  as  sympathetically  sore  as  he  was  after 
witnessing  the  knight's  unfortunate  encounter  with 
the  Yangliesian  carriers — but  I  cannot  find  therein  a 
single  paper  which  a  slave  in  gratitude  has  dedicated 
to  the  hacendado.  And  by  this  I  do  not  mean  that 
all  of  them  are  situated  in  the  same  unhappiness.  But 
those  who  chance  to  be  more  fortunate  do  not  leave 
written  records.  If  I  had  one  I  should  print  it,  and 
without  misgivings.  I  should  not  believe  that  it  had 
been  extracted  in  the  fashion  followed  by  a  certain 
jefe.  This  official  was  deciding  what  to  do  with 
someone  who  had  walked  in  a  political  procession, 
and  had  been  arrested  as  he  was  the  enemy  of  a 
policeman.  '  You  will  go  to  the  Penitenciary  for 
thirty  days,'  said  the  jefe  politico,  '  or  else  you  may 
sign  this  paper  which  says  that  you  are  fond  of  the 
Government.'  '  I  am  neither  for  the  Government,' 
was  the  answer,  '  nor  against  it.  I  will  go  to  the 
Penitenciary.' 

The  slaves  who  are  contented  do  not  testify,  and 
of  the  others  very  few.  '  Let  there  be  darkness,'  say 
those  hacendados.  Now  and  then  we  see  a  hand 
that  reaches  out  to  them. 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  189 


V 

The  Human  Heart 

A  woman  called  Matilde  Poot  was  hoping  that 
Augusto  L.  Peon,  the  largest  landowner  in  Yucatan, 
would  be  the  godfather  [padrino]  of  her  little  boy,  as 
he  had  been  of  hundreds.  To  be  the  padrino  of  a 
child  is  not  a  matter  which  the  Mexicans  consider 
lightly  ;  a  relation  which  is  of  the  first  importance — 
which  is  sacred — is  set  up  between  the  child,  his  family 
and  the  padrino.  In  this  woman's  case  Senor  Peon 
did  not  accept  the  honourable  office  for  himself  but 
gave  it,  as  in  many  other  cases,  to  his  confidential 
clerk,  a  man  who  serves  him  very  blindly,  Manuel 
Rios.  This  poor  woman  Poot  had  been  abandoned 
by  her  husband  ;  she  thought  that  in  the  battle  of 
our  life  it  would  be  well  to  have  a  potent  friend.  And 
one  day  Rios  told  her  that  she  was  not  paying 
adequate  attention  to  his  godchild  and  that  therefore 
she  must  go  to  live  at  Yaxche,  Don  Augusto' s  noble 
hacienda.  She  was  taken  down  by  force,  and  in  the 
hacienda  was  presented  to  a  man  to  be  his  wife.  In 
Yucatan  there  is  a  scarcity  of  labour.  Well,  it  was 
two  months  ere  she  was  able  to  escape,  and  then  she 
ran  to  Merida,  was  seized  by  the  police,  delivered  to 
this  Rios,  flogged,  and  sent  to  one  of  Don  Augusto' s 
other  farms,  near  Uxmal,  and  provided  with  another 
husband.  This  occurred  four  years  ago,  but  Rios  has 
forgotten  all  about  it.  Don  Augusto's  brother  tells 
me  that  he  thinks  the  woman  was  a  drunkard  ;  and 
assuming  this,  then  surely  she  was  not  subjected  to 


190      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


a  proper  treatment.  Rios  found  he  could  not  trace 
her,  and  he  has  forgotten  all  about  the  boy,  which  is  a 
thing  padrinos  rarely  do.  And  there  is  something 
which  a  Catholic  would  never  do,  says  Rios,  and 
that  is  to  give  a  woman  first  to  this  man,  then  to  that 
one,  all  within  ten  weeks.  He  has  assured  me  that 
he  never  could  have  done  it,  since  he  must  conform 
to  Don  Augusto's  notions,  and  he  adds  that  Don 
Augusto  is  a  Catholic.  .  .  .  But  I  should  not  be  hard 
on  Rios  for  his  memory.  We  have  our  imperfections, 
all  of  us,  and  Rios  has  acknowledged  to  me  that  his 
memory  is  bad.  He  scarcely  could  remember  an 
appalling  incident  which  had  occurred  five  months 
ago,  when  one  Ramirez,  serving  at  the  hacienda 
Yaxche,  had  committed  suicide.  '  El  Dictamen,'  the 
independent  newspaper  of  Veracruz,  gave  all  the 
details,  and  one  may  observe  that  the  authorities  of 
Yucatan  have  no  affection  for  this  paper.  They  have 
put  the  agent  into  gaol  and  probably  he  will  be 
sentenced  to  a  year  or  two,  the  pretext  being  that  he 
is  responsible  for  some  insulting  paragraphs  in 
6  Yucatan  Nuevo,'  a  paper  whose  existence  and  whose 
purpose  (a  Diaz  and  Dehesa  candidature  for  the  two 
chief  offices  of  the  Republic)  have  alike  been  long 
forgotten.  In  4  El  Dictamen  '  I  read  how  this  Ramirez 
could  not  clear  a  certain  area  of  land,  which  had 
been  given  him  to  do  '  en  fagina.'  The  ground  was 
heavy,  and  in  the  allotted  time  Ramirez  had  not 
managed  to  remove  the  trunks  of  several  trees. 
So  he  was  flogged — twenty-five  lashes,  says  '  El 
Dictamen ' — and  he  was  told  that  if  he  did  not  on 
the  next  day  clear  that  area  and  another  of  an 
equal  size  he  would  receive  another  twenty-five. 
The  wretched  fellow,  who  was  ill  besides,  made  his 
escape  and  was  discovered,  after  several  days,  a 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  191 


corpse.1  'Ah,  yes,'  said  Rios,  'he  had  killed  him- 
self. Perhaps  for  a  caprice,  who  knows  ?  I  think 
he  was  an  alcoholic' 

'  Did  the  coroner  say  that  ?  ' 

'  Who  knows  ?  What  is  a  coroner  ?  '  His  forehead 
was  a  map  of  wrinkles. 

'  Is  there  some  examination  ?  ' 

'  Oh,  I  dare  say ;  but  I  really  don't  remember  what 
they  do.  You  see,  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  us.  He 
killed  himself  outside  the  farm.  His  body  was  found 
there.  Yes,  it  was  dead.' 

'  And  if  he  had  died  on  the  farm  ?  ' 

'  Oh,  that  is  a  different  thing.' 

'  It  would  not  have  got  into  the  papers  ?  ' 

Rios  frowned.  '  Who  knows  ?  '  he  said.  .  .  . 
'  But  we  never  pay  attention  to  what  the  papers  say. 
You  know  as  well  as  I  do — lies  !  lies  !  lies  ! '  he 
waved  his  arms  about,  '  oh,  they  are  dreadful.  Didn't 
the  "  Diario  "  say  that  you  listen  to  the  bad,  old 
music  of  the  band,  here  in  the  nights  ?  ' 

'  But  don't  they  sometimes  by  accident  have  some- 
thing which  is  true  ?  '  I  ventured. 

'  Vile,  abominable  things  !  If  I  could  have  my 
way  with  them  !  '   He  looked  ferocious. 

I  reminded  him  that  one  could  have  a  paper  stopped 
in  Mexico  by  merely  charging  it  with  having  uttered 
libel.  Such  had  been  the  fate  of  6  El  Pais,'  the  most 
important  paper  of  the  capital,  because  a  minor 
Government  official  said  that  it  was  libellous  to 

1  J'ai  perdu  tout  mon  bonheur, 
J'ai  perdu  mon  serviteur, 

Colin  me  delaisse. 
Helas  !  il  a  pu  changer  ! 
Je  voudrois  n'y  plus  songer  ; 
J'y  songe  sans  cesse. 
But  Rousseau  was  no  flawless  prophet  and  only  the  second  and 
fifth  lines  are  applicable  here. 


192      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


publish  that  he  had  been  put  in  prison  for  a  theft. 
(But  he  did  not  persist  in  this  denial.)  '  If  you  are 
unwilling  to  proceed  to  such  extremes,'  I  said, 
4  you  ' 

'  May  they  all  be  taken  to  the  devil ! 9 

4  You  can  bring  an  action,  I  presume,  and  get  them 
to  pay  heavy  damages — 5000  or  10,000  pesos.  Then 
they  would  be  much  more  careful.' 

4  Lies  !  lies  !  lies  !  '  He  took  me  by  the  arm. 
4  What  did  they  say  of  you — that  you  had  watched 
a  fire  in  Merida,  when  you  were  three  hours  distant 
by  the  railway  ?  After  that  one  can't  believe  a  word.' 

It  seemed  to  me  that  he  was  not  an  expert  on  the 
subject  of  mendacity,  and  so  I  tried  to  show  him  that 
there  is  a  difference,  sometimes,  between  two  state- 
ments that  diverge  from  accuracy.  4  Your  employer, 
Don  Augusto,'  I  observed,  4  was  of  opinion  that  mere 
folly  one  need  never  contradict,  but  if  they  touch 

one's  honour  ! '   And  I  don't  think  that  I  need 

have  quoted  Don  Augusto.  4  Come,  why  don't  you 
get  the  paper  fined  5000  pesos  ?  ' 

He  expressed  contempt — I  cannot  say  sublime 
contempt — in  face  and  shoulders.  4  But  why  should 
I  hurt  the  paper  ?  Let  the  poor  thing  live,'  he  said, 
4  if  that  is  what  it  wants  to  do.' 

I  should  have  liked  to  take  the  photograph  of 
Manuel  in  that  great  moment.  4  And  although  this 
article  is  up  against  the  honour  of  yourself  and  Don 
Augusto,  I  suppose  it  is  a  rare  event  for  people  of 
the  farm  to  kill  themselves  ?  ' 

4  Oh,  let  them  be.  Besides,  we  have  enough  to  do 
with  other  things.' 

I  recognised  that  I  was  in  the  presence  of  a  quite  un- 
usual man.  4  If  someone  in  the  office  here,'  I  said, 
4  insults  you  ?  ' 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  193 


■  Pooh  !  I  pay  his  wages  and  discharge  him.' 

4  If  you  are  insulted  by  a  man  who  is  not  your 
subordinate  ?  ' — I  mentioned  one  of  his  acquaintances 
— '  what  would  you  do  ?  ' 

'  Well,  what  is  there  to  do  ?  ' 


I  shall  be  subject  to  some  criticism  for  alluding  thus 
to  Don  Augusto  and  his  clerk.  They  were  of  much 
assistance  to  me.  I  believe  at  one  time  Don  Augusto 
came  to  my  hotel,  while  I  was  breakfasting,  for  half 
a  dozen  mornings  in  succession.  He  would  talk 
philosophy  for  something  like  an  hour  and  then  escort 
me  in  his  motor  to  some  institution.  We  went  out  to 
Yaxche  and  another  farm,  Tetzitz,  which  he  had  lately 
bought ;  a  rumour  came  to  me  that  certain  years  ago 
a  woman  of  the  farm  had  told  the  overseer  that  her 
husband  was  too  ill  to  work  and  if  he  were  compelled 
to  do  so  she  would  go  to  Merida,  to  the  authorities. 
On  this  the  overseer  was  reported  to  have  hung  her  up 
and  syringed  her  with  water  mixed  with  chile.  Don 
Augusto  said  it  was  a  story  he  could  not  believe,  but 
he  was  very  willing  to  investigate.  So  one  day  we 
went  out  by  tram,  with  several  relays  of  mules  who 
cantered  most  of  the  26  miles.  And  at  the  hacienda 
we  unearthed  a  venerable  Maya  who  spoke  Spanish 
very  well  and  told  us  that  the  overseer  used  to  treat 
the  women  always  in  that  fashion,  save  that  he  did 
not  put  chile  in  the  water,  and  the  usual  offence  for 
which  he  treated  them  was  drunkenness.  .  .  . 

It  would  be  palpably  unjust  on  my  part  if 
I  were  to  speak  my  mind  about  the  smaller 
hacendados  and  say  nothing  of  the  largest  one 
because  he  had  assisted  me.  I  saw  a  letter  in  the 
•  Mexican  Herald  '  written  by  a  foreign  cigar-merchant 
o 


194      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


of  Orizaba  ;  this  peculiar  person  said  that  it  was  most 
ungentlemanly  for  a  writer  to  examine  the  conditions 
of  the  Valle  Nacional's  tobacco  fields,  accept  a 
hacendado's  hospitality,  and  then  denounce  his  evil 
conduct.  What  he  should  have  done,  no  doubt,  in 
order  to  comply  with  the  cigar  man's  sense  of  etiquette, 
was  either  to  remain  a  score  of  miles  away  at  Tuxtepec, 
in  the  hotel,  or  else  to  mention  blandly  to  the  hacendado 
what  was  his  design.  I  found  it  quite  embarrassing, 
but  I  discussed  Matilde  Poot  and  others  both  with 
Don  Augusto  and  his  faithful  clerk.  And  I  reiterate 
that  Don  Augusto  was  most  helpful,  not  only  in 
opening  official  doors — he  was  a  kind  of  god  in  Merida 
— but  with  his  conversation.  Of  the  Governor,  Don 
Enrique  Munoz  Aristegui,  he  used  to  say  that  he  was 
most  laborious  and  honest,  but  was  ignorant  of  human 
hearts.  1  No  conoce  el  corazon  humano.'  This  he  said 
repeatedly,  in  English  and  in  Spanish,  fearing  that  I 
would  not  understand.  It  is  a  breach  of  confidence 
that  I  should  write  this  down,  but  Don  Enrique  very 
probably  has  something  similar  to  say  of  Don  Augusto, 
and  what  could  be  better  basis  for  a  real  friendship  ? 
Don  Augusto,  by  the  by,  knows  English  very  well,  but 
not  so  perfectly  as  to  be  destitute  of  sudden  jewels. 
He  was  anxious  to  translate  one  day  the  Spanish 
phrase  for  '  I  am  an  enlightened  person '  [soy 
hombre  ilustrado]  and  he  said,  '  I  am  an  illustrated 
man.' 

From  one  who  formerly  in  Southern  Yucatan  had 
served  as  jefe  politico  I  heard  that,  consequent  upon  a 
wish  of  Don  Augusto,  he  had  sent  out  five-and-twenty 
soldiers  to  secure  a  dozen  Yaqui  men  and  women  and 
an  unborn  child  who  had  escaped.  Two  women  and 
three  men  were  captured  by  the  troops,  while  the 
remaining  refugees  crossed  over  to  Campeche.  Subse- 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  195 


quently  Don  Augusto  asked  this  jefe  to  perform 
another  service  and  to  send  up  to  his  farm  the  two 
sons  of  a  slave,  who  both  of  them  were  living  in  the 
jefe's  village.  4  Don  Augusto  made  it  known  to  me,* 
so  said  the  ex-official,  '  that  these  two  were  minors 
and  should  therefore  not  be  separated  from  their 
parent  who  was  on  the  farm.  I  answered  that  the 
age  of  one  was  twenty-four,  the  other  twenty-nine. 
But  he  desired  that  I  should  send  them.  I  refused ; 
the  young  men  as  a  punishment  were  put  into  the 
Guardia  Nacional  and  Don  Augusto  got  the  Governor 
to  name  another  jefe.9 

I  wondered  if  this  was  the  Governor  of  whom  he 
said  :  4  No  conoce  el  corazon  humano.1 

Here  is  the  translation  of  a  document  drawn  up  by 
Jose  Andrade,  a  notary  public  : — 

I  certify  and  give  it  on  my  faith  :  that  at  the  request 
of  the  Licentiate  Don  Tirso  Perez  Ponce  I  sat  in  union 
with  the  witnesses  who  at  the  end  of  this  declare  them- 
selves, in  the  house  nr  477  of  the  street  nr  64,  it  being 
half  past  three  in  the  afternoon,  and  there  were  present 
before  me  the  citizens  Juan  Pablo  Can,  married,  day- 
labourer  and  adult,  and  David  Gutierrez,  married,  day- 
labourer  and  adult,  living  at  Yokat,  and  the  afore- 
mentioned Can  living  at  Ticul,  according  as  they  did 
manifest  and  say  :  the  former,  Juan  Pablo  Can,  who  for 
a  long  time  living  in  the  same  place,  served  as  a  day- 
labourer  in  the  farm  Yokat  of  which  the  owners  were 
respectively  Don  Felipe  Peon,  Don  Eusebio  Escalante, 
Don  Raymundo  Camara,  and  Don  Rafael  Hernandez 
Escudero,  whose  persons  he  was  wont  to  serve  in  the 
farm  Yokat  on  the  ordinary  working  days,  withdrawing 
for  repose  to  the  town  of  Ticul,  where  he  always  had 
maintained  his  home,  living  in  union  with  all  his 
family,  which  is  formed  of  his  wife  and  sons  Manuel 
Can,  Santiago  Can  and  Juan  Pablo  Can  y  Leon,  all 
under   age. — On  the  farm   being   bought   by  Don 


196      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Augusto  Peon,  he  who  makes  the  declaration  was  un- 
well, remaining  in  his  house  where  he  was  being  medi- 
cally treated,  and  when  for  a  week  he  had  not  been  in 
a  position  to  assist  in  the  accustomed  labour  of  the 
farm  Yokat,  the  agent  Senor  Felipe  Herrera  gave  order 
to  Senor  Don  Cosme  Solis  to  make  it  known  to  him 
that  he  should  go,  despite  his  illness,  to  the  farm,  and 
on  the  next  day  Senor  Don  Ricardo  Ferraez,  adminis- 
trator of  Yokat,  conducted  him  to  the  residence  of 
Senor  Don  Augusto  Peon  in  this  city  of  Merida,  where 
he  stayed  for  a  term  of  10  days  and  was  taken  to  the 
same  farm  Yokat  by  the  administrator  Senor  Ferraez, 
and  on  the  same  day  he  was  given  notice  that  he  must 
transfer  his  residence  to  the  aforesaid  farm,  which 
obligation  had  in  Merida  been  laid  upon  him  by  Senor 
Don  Augusto  Peon  and  his  commissioner  Don  Manuel 
Rios. — That  a  little  time  after  buying  the  farm  and 
in  conformity  with  the  strict  orders  whereby  Juan 
Pablo  Can  and  his  family  should  establish  themselves 
in  Yokat,  the  agent  Felipe  Herrera  and  the  adminis- 
trator Senor  Ferraez,  personally,  came  with  carts 
belonging  to  the  same  hacienda  to  fetch  the  furniture 
of  Can  which  was  in  his  house  at  Ticul  and  transferring 
it  to  the  house  which  had  been  appointed  for  him  in 
the  farm.  That  on  Saturday  the  11th  inst.  Senor  Manuel 
Rios  arrived  at  Yokat  by  train  and  gave  notice  to  Juan 
Pablo  Can  and  David  Gutierrez  to  prepare  themselves 
because  they  had  immediately  to  go  to  Merida  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  wish  of  Senor  Augusto  Peon,  which 
order  was  obeyed  when  the  train  returned  at  six  in  the 
evening,  Senor  Rios  conducting  them  to  this  city  to  the 
house  of  Senor  Peon,  where  they  arrived  at  1 0  at  night, 
because  the  train,  which  was  a  special  train  to  fetch 
them,  suffered  a  delay.  That  on  arriving  at  the  house 
of  Senor  Peon  neither  David  Gutierrez  knew  the  where- 
abouts of  his  brother,  the  minor  Mateo  Gutierrez,  nor 
did  Juan  Pablo  Can  know  the  whereabouts  of  his  son, 
the  minor,  Manuel  Can  Leon,  and  they  received  notice 
that  these  persons  were  in  Merida  by  means  of  the 
minor  Santiago  Can  who  came  to  the  house  of  Senor 


THE  SLAVES  OF  YUCATAN  197 


Peon  and  gave  information  of  the  house  in  which  they 
were,  and  after  permission  which  they  got  from  Senor 
Peon,  without  saying  what  for,  they  went  out  in  search 
of  Mateo  Gutierrez  and  Manuel  Can  Leon,  whom  they 
found. — In  this  state  were  brought  before  me  the 
minors  Mateo  Gutierrez  and  Manuel  Can  Leon  and  in 
the  presence  of  David  Gutierrez  and  Manuel  Can,  their 
representatives,  they  deposed  the  following  facts  :  that 
it  is  more  or  less  15  days  ago  since  the  Senores 
Cristobel  Carrillo,  Transito  Escamilla  and  his  father 
Juan  Escamilla  apprehended  them  in  the  town  of  Ticul 
and  brought  them  to  the  barracks  of  that  town,  in  which 
they  were  detained  from  6  in  the  evening  for  a  time  of 
2  days  and  during  these,  on  a  Sunday,  at  7  in  the 
morning,  they  were  conducted  to  the  jefe  politico  and 
he  warned  them  that  they  had  to  go  back  to  serve  in 
the  farm  Yokat  and  if  they  did  not  do  so  they  would 
be  consigned  to  serve  in  the  army  for  5  years ;  and 
they  replying  to  the  warnings  of  the  jefe  politico 
said  both  of  them  that  they  would  not  go  to  the  farm 
Yokat  because  they  had  never  lived  there  and  always 
had  been  settled  in  the  town  of  Ticul.  Immediately 
they  were  taken  to  the  prison  and  placed  in  one  room 
there,  together  with  4  others  who  are  called  Santiago 
Can,  17  years  of  age,  Santiago  Esquivel,  Pedro  Coh, 
and  Liborio  Uc,  and  when  it  was  Monday  at  half  past 
seven  in  the  morning  when  the  train  arrived  for  Merida, 
they  were  brought  to  the  house  of  Senor  Don  Augusto 
Peon  by  Senores  Juan  Escamilla,  Manuel  Rios  and  the 
chief  of  police,  Don  Cristobal  Carrillo,  in  uniform  ;  when 
they  arrived  at  the  house  all  6  were  locked  in  a  stable 
under  the  care  of  a  person  whose  name  they  do  not 
know  and  they  know  him  to  be  a  salaried  servant  of  the 
house.  When  they  had  been  imprisoned  for  4  days  in 
the  house  of  Senor  Peon,  the  Senor  Ricardo  Ferraez 
took  them  to  the  farm  Yokat,  and  on  arriving  there, 
not  believing  themselves  servants  of  the  farm,  they  got 
away  at  once  to  the  town  of  Ticul,  where  they  remained 
some  days  and  on  hearing  that  new  orders  of  apprehen- 
sion had  been  dictated  against  them  they  came  to 


198      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 

Merida  in  search  of  an  advocate  to  represent  their 
rights.  Thus  they  have  expressed  themselves,  manifest- 
ing that  they  cannot  sign  their  names,  which  has  been 
done  at  their  request  by  the  Senor  Francisco  Buenfil 
R.  before  the  witnesses  citizens  Jose  A.  Vadillo  and 
Pedro  P.  Peraga,  here  present,  of  this  town  and  adults, 
before  whom  those  who  make  the  declaration  manifest 
that  they  have  no  wish  to  give  services  of  any  sort  to 
Sefior  Peon  nor  in  any  farm  which  he  possesses. — Given 
on  my  faith — Merida,  March  13th,  1905. 

One  may  add  that  the  Senores  Cristobal  Carrillo, 
Transito  Escamilla  and  his  father,  Juan  Escamilla,  are 
members  of  the  police  who  are  employed  specially  to 
hunt  for  '  refugees,'  as  they  have  taken  to  calling  those 
free  citizens  '  who  refuse  to  go  on  suffering  bad 
treatment  in  certain  haciendas  which  belong  to  those 
who  have  high  sway  in  politics.'  I  have  not  met  this 
Cristobal  Carrillo  or  his  comrades,  but  perhaps  I  do 
them  no  injustice  if — presuming  from  their  occupation 
— I  assert  that  they  are  ignorant  of  human  hearts : 
'  No  conocen  el  corazon  humano.' 


CHAPTER  IX 


AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  STUDY 
OF  MEXICAN  HISTORY 

It  is  regrettable  that  I  should  have  to  write  this 
chapter,  not  alone  because  it  will  be  passing  dull — a 
pile  of  facts — but  on  account  of  what  Carlyle  has 
said  :  '  Wilt  thou  know  a  man,  above  all  a  mankind, 
by  stringing  together  beadrolls  of  what  thou  namest 
facts  ?  '  But  they  will  merely  be  presented  for  the 
purpose  of  evolving  out  of  them  an  atmosphere.  The 
dusky  potentate  who  squats  immovable  upon  a  throne 
of  ivory  in  Timbuctu  does  not,  in  our  imagination, 
differ  from  the  King  of  Guinea — they  are  objects  in  a 
deadly  vacuum,  whereas  if  they  would  live  for  us  they 
must  have  atmosphere.  So  far  as  I  can  recollect  the 
lamentable  day  when  I  was  not  more  versed  in  Mexico 
than  most  of  you  who  read  these  lines,  it  was  to  me 
a  land  of  Aztec  battlefields  on  which  the  modern 
desperadoes  skulked  behind  the  cacti  when  they  were 
not  killed  by  Diaz.  Possibly  I  thought  he  was  a  grim 
and  necessary  person,  but  my  information  went  no 
further.  It  was  rather  like  the  bald  announcement 
in  the  '  Morning  Post '  that  Lord  and  Lady  So-and-so 
have  gone  into  the  country,  as  compared  with  the 
more  detailed  information  of  the  Press  in  Mexico 
which  tells  you  that  the  same  thing  has  been  done  by 
Senor  Don  Fulano  and  his  virtuous  Senora.  Thus  we 

199 


200      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


have  a  state  of  ignorance  to  be  dispersed  before  the 
Mexicans  stand  out  for  us  as  real  men  and  women. 
But  the  process  of  distilling  atmosphere  from  facts  is, 
in  the  case  of  Mexico,  peculiarly  difficult.  You  look 
upon  this  picture  and  on  that — a  lion  lying  down 
beside  a  lamb,  another  lion  who  is  not  unnatural, 
and  what  deductions  will  you  make  ?  We  are  not 
now  concerned  with  other  peoples  who  no  doubt  are 
far  from  simple,  but  the  Mexican,  indeed,  is  com- 
plicated. And  it  is  upon  the  reader,  I  rejoice  to  say, 
that  the  successful  brewing  of  this  atmosphere  depends. 
I  merely  shall  provide  the  facts  and  try  to  ascertain 
in  what  proportion  are  the  lion's  natural  to  his 
unnatural  proclivities.  And  from  this  medley  of  the 
colours — much  of  some,  of  others  little — you  will  paint 
yourselves  a  picture.  Even  as  the  postal  service  out 
in  Mexico  is  to  a  large  extent  effective  in  proportion 
to  the  care  bestowed  upon  it  by  the  public,  so  will  you 
in  this  case  have  responsibilities.  An  enterprising  old 
Dutch  engineer  was  occupied  in  Mexico  with  some- 
thing in  the  nature  of  a  text-book  and  the  data 
were  supplied  to  him  in  Spanish  by  the  various 
departments.  The  Director- General  of  the  Post 
Office  provided  him  with  many  details,  and  6  although,' 
said  he,  '  the  working  of  the  postal  service  does 
depend  a  great  deal  on  the  employes,  yet  if  it  is  to 
be  conducted  with  efficiency  and  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  public,  then  there  is  a  heavy  burden  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  public.  We  have  instituted,  for 
example,  with  some  foreign  countries  the  arrangement 
of  the  postal  order.  Certain  countries,  on  the  other 
hand — for  instance,  Spain  and  Portugal — have  not 
arrived  at  any  such  arrangement  with  ourselves  ; 
and  it  is  urgently  impressed  upon  the  public  that  they 
should  be  careful  not  to  ask  at  any  post  office  for 


THE  STUDY  OF  MEXICAN  HISTORY  201 


orders  payable  in  Spain  or  Portugal,  as  they  might 
inadvertently  be  issued.' 

Mexico  is  full  of  contradictions  :  in  Morelos  on  the 
sugar  haciendas  we  would  swear  that  patience  of  a 
most  extraordinary,  not  to  say  excessive,  character 
is  in  the  master's  bosom — 30  cents  a  ton  he  pays  for 
cutting  cane,  and  after  they  have  cut  two  tons,  which 
is  no  heavy  task,  the  men  go  home  to  idleness — and 
worse  than  that.  They  are  contented,  for  they 
cherish  no  ambitions,  and  the  local  discontent  which 
made  them  join  Madero's  revolution  was  occasioned 
chiefly  by  disputes  regarding  water-rights  ;  and  when 
the  water  is  at  their  disposal,  as  I  found  in  one 
important  district,  they  are  apt  to  let  it  run  to  waste, 
and  to  continue  with  the  maize  instead  of  starting 
with  the  much  more  profitable  sugar,  which  necessi- 
tates a  certain  energy  at  the  beginning.  So  the  peasant 
does  not  rise.  In  Yucatan  he  does  not  rise,  but  on 
account  of  other  reasons.  The  Morelian  labourer — 
if  so  he  can  be  called — will  go  away  if  he  is  dis- 
contented, but  the  Yucateco  scarcely  goes  until  his 
poor,  exploited  body — no,  when  he  is  dead  it  can  be 
still  exploited.  There  is  not  much  hilly  ground  in 
that  Peninsula,  but  there  is  one  small  village  half-way 
up  a  hill ;  it  has  a  graveyard  underneath  it  and 
another  one  above.  '  I  shall  be  pleased  to  bury  him,' 
the  priest  has  said  a  hundred  times,  '  wherever  you 
desire,  and  at  no  cost  at  all  if  it  is  in  the  cemetery  down 
below.  But  I  must  warn  you  that  a  person  who  is 
buried  there  will  probably  go  down  to  Hell,  whereas 
the  happy  ones,  who  are  interred  above — it  is  a 
first-class  cemetery,  and  we  have  to  charge  a  fee 
— will,  I  have  got  no  doubt,  become  good  citizens  of 
Heaven.' 

Those  who  have  not  been  good  citizens  on  earth  will 


202      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


also  suffer  from  what  seems  to  us  the  waywardness 
of  Mexico.  Behind  a  double  door,  securely  bolted, 
in  the  famous  Alhondiga  de  Granaditas,  we  discovered 
an  emaciated  boy.  He  hung  his  head  when  we 
inquired  for  what  foul  deed  he  had  been  so  severely 
punished,  while  the  rest  of  Guanajuato's  prisoners — 
assassins  and  the  perpetrators  of  whatever  has  been 
recognised  and  of  such  things  as  have  no  recognition 
in  the  Decalogue — were  strolling  round  the  sunlit 
galleries,  a  little  too  much  crowded  to  be  absolutely 
comfortable,  but  a  prisoner  is  after  all  a  prisoner. 
4  What  have  you  done  ?  '  we  asked  the  miserable  lad, 
and  while  we  waited  for  his  answer  we  had  too  much 
time  to  see  the  terrible  condition  of  the  walls  and 
floor,  to  feel  that  we  had  died  a  thousand  deaths  from 
the  most  evil  stench.  At  last  he  murmured,  1  I  have 
been  accused,  they  have  accused  me  of  the  crime  of 
theft.'  But  no,  he  had  not  stolen  all  the  silver  in  the 
State  of  Guanajuato.  And,  talking  of  thieves,  there 
was  the  Governor  of  Guanajuato,  Senor  Obregon 
Gonzalez,  who  did  a  merry  trade  with  his  tienda  de 
raya,  the  shop  from  which  his  miners  were  compelled 
to  buy,  although  the  less-expensive  village  shop  is 
near  at  hand. 

Nor  is  the  system  of  police  less  contradictory.  The 
men  who  have  occasion  to  commit  a  murder  in 
Chiapas  need  not  always  fly  across  the  frontier  into 
Guatemala.  If  they  want  to  be  completely  safe  they 
do  so — with  the  reigning  President  of  Guatemala 
in  possession  it  would  really  be  too  great  an  irony  if 
steps  were  taken  to  molest  an  alien  murderer.  But 
the  policemen  of  Chiapas  are,  I  found,  extremely 
tolerant.  Not  far  from  Tapachula,  in  the  lovely 
mountains,  lies  a  coffee  hacienda,  and  it  is  the  only 
one  that  is  not  German  or  American.    I  could  not 


THE  STUDY  OF  MEXICAN  HISTORY  203 


learn  if  the  proprietor  was  to  be  found  or  not,  as  he 
had  lately  killed  his  wife  and  taken  the  precaution  also 
to  assassinate  the  book-keeper.  He  would  have  told 
the  judge  that,  as  an  outraged  husband,  he  was  fully 
justified — but  the  authorities  did  not  disturb  him, 
and  perhaps  he  was  in  Guatemala  and  perhaps  he  was 
at  home  with  his  deceased  wife's  sister,  whose 
equivocal  position  had  induced  him  to  destroy  his 
wife.  And  in  Chiapas  the  police  can  be  as  energetic 
as  you  please.  4  Not  long  ago,'  I  quote  from  '  El  Pais  ' 
of  18th  April,  1911,  '  some  unfortunate  labourers  in 
the  department  of  Chilon  (where  slavery  exists  with 
all  its  horrors,  with  its  cruel  punishments  and  tributes 
that  are  worse  than  death)  attained  their  liberty  and 
fled,  with  thousands  of  precautions  ;  they  were  not  in 
debt,  they  wanted  nothing  more  than  to  be  free  ;  but 
they  were  followed  by  the  agent  of  the  farm ;  and  three 
of  them,  a  woman  and  a  new-born  child  were  stretched 
upon  the  ground  ;  their  life  was  taken  by  the  Mausers 
of  the  amateur  police.  As  this  produced  great 
indignation  in  the  hearts  of  honourable  people,  it  was 
necessary  for  the  judge  to  make  inquiries  ;  those 
who  had  been  culpable  were  lodged  not  in  the  prison, 
but  in  the  municipal  building.  Presently  they  were 
declared  innocent.  What  had  happened  ?  .  .  .  And 
another  Indian,  a  refugee,  was  dragged  into  the 
agent's  presence,'  I  am  quoting  still  from  '  El  Pais,' 
1  and  this  ferocious  animal  commanded  that  his  legs 
should  be  cut  off,  as  warning  to  the  others,  and  that 
they  should  plant  him  in  the  ground  ' — the  upper 
portion  of  his  body  being  left  to  the  ferocious  sun. 
He  did  not  die  for  two  whole  days.  ■  The  municipal 
agent  of  a  village  that  was  in  the  grip  of  smallpox 
ordered  that  the  victims  should  be  driven  out  and 
banished  to  the  mountains  if  they  could  not  pay  the 


204      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


sum  of  20  pesos  for  an  adult  and  10  pesos  for  a 
child.'  We  read  in  Dr.  Dillon's  book  on  6  Russian 
Characteristics '  that  some  villages  in  which  this 
malady  was  rampant  were  consumed  by  fire,  the 
population  being  kept  inside  a  ring  of  soldiers.  Then 
it  was  no  question  that  a  money  payment  would 
exempt  you,  and  at  Monterrey,  in  northern  Mexico, 
the  doctors,  who  not  long  since  tried  to  save  as  many 
of  the  people  as  they  could,  gave  such  a  medicine  to 
their  smallpox  patients  that  they  at  the  same  time 
gave  an  order  to  the  undertaker's  men,  and  I  did  not 
hear  that  any  of  them  ever  compromised  for  money. 
Poor  Chiapas  !  which  in  1822  came  of  her  own  free  will 
into  the  Mexican  Republic.  It  were  almost  better 
that  she  had  remained  a  province  of  disastrous 
Guatemala.  .  .  .  We  have  said  that  Mexico  is 
contradictory,  but  with  regard  to  the  police  there  is 
not  much  excessive  kindliness  to  balance  the  excessive 
zeal.  And  if  I  could  unearth  some  facts  relating  to 
this  kindliness,  how  many  should  I  want  in  order  to 
obliterate  the  cruel  facts  ?  Villavicencio,  Commissary 
of  Police,  requires  a  number  of  indulgent  colleagues 
ere  the  scales  of  Mexican  police  administration  can 
be  thought  of  as  approximately  level.  He  is  one  of 
those  who  torture.  Hipolito  Olea,  a  barrister,  de- 
nounced him  in  the  School  of  Jurisprudence  for  the 
treatment  that  was  given  to  one  Astilleros,  who  had 
murdered  his  old  mistress,  Marie  Poucel,  and  would 
not  confess.  The  method  used  in  this  case  was 
unspeakable,  and  seeing  that  the  Commissary  had  a 
full  supply  of  instruments  in  his  police-court,  one  does 
not  suppose  that  Astilleros  was  the  only  criminal  or 
political  suspect  on  whose  person  they  were  brought 
to  bear.  With  many,  on  the  other  hand,  he  has 
employed  the  milder  variation  of  suspending  by  the 


Villavicencio. 


THE  STUDY  OF  MEXICAN  HISTORY  205 


thumbs.  And  he  has  certain  cells  made  of  cement  in 
which  he  feeds  the  prisoners  on  cecina,  a  dry,  salt 
meat ;  he  will  not  give  them  anything  to  drink.  If 
any  girl  should  enter  his  police-court  it  is  probable 
that,  as  they  say  in  Mexico,  there  will  be  still  another 
soldier  for  the  President  of  the  Republic.  This  Villa- 
vicencio  was  one  of  the  police  who  killed  the  wretched 
and  half-witted  man  Arroyo,  after  his  abortive  effort 
to  assassinate  the  President  in  1897.  Villavicencio, 
Cabrera  and  Velasquez  slew  the  man  in  prison,  so 
that  it  was  natural  for  them  to  be  rewarded  :  we 
have  spoken  of  the  licence1  which  the  former  now 
enjoys,  Cabrera  was  promoted  to  be  chief  of  the  police 
in  Puebla.  Both  of  them,  for  form's  sake,  were 
condemned  to  death  for  having  killed  Arroyo  ;  and 
there  is  no  doubt  that  such  a  sentence  and  analogous 
promotion  would  have  fallen  to  Velasquez  if  he  had 
not  wanted  to  confess  the  crime.  He  was  prevented 
by  the  judge,  and  later  on  the  news  was  circulated 
that  he  had  committed  suicide  in  prison.  And  the 
newspaper  6  El  Mundo  '  printed  an  account  of  how 
he  died  when  he  had  still  three  days  to  live.  This  is 
the  same  Velasquez  who  desired  to  marry  Senorita 
Ricoy,  but  was  balked  by  her  confessor,  Padre 
Tortolero,  who  did  not  approve  of  the  police  official 
and  advised  the  girl  to  have  no  more  to  do  with 
him.  The  Padre  thereupon  was  seized  and  bound 
at  the  police-court,  where  they  went  on  pouring 
alcohol  into  his  throat  until  he  died.  .  .  .  The  Mexi- 
can is  naturally  cruel  and  one  therefore  would  suppose 

1  One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  de  la  Barra  Government  was  to  arrest 
this  man  with  two  of  his  confederates.  They  were  accused  of  having, 
by  the  use  of  torture,  got  a  false  confession  from  some  people  in  the 
city  of  Chihuahua,  where  a  bank  had  been  despoiled.  The  torture 
lay  in  putting  guiltless  people  into  coffins,  with  a  menace  that  if  they 
did  not  confess  they  would  remain  there  permanently.  It  is  said  a 
former  manager  of  this  same  bank  is  filled  with  the  desire  to  travel. 


206      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


that  he  is  something  of  a  coward.  But  the  purely 
Indian  population  of  the  south  is  slothful  even  more 
than  it  is  cowardly.  That  overwhelming  climate  and 
the  centuries  of  hard  oppression  have  induced  a  kind 
of  artificial  sleep.  You  can  do  whatsoever  operations 
you  desire  and  probably  they  will  not  waken.  Let  us 
go  no  further  than  Chiapas  :  it  is  several  years  since 
he  of  whom  I  speak  was  Governor,  but  he  will  not 
be  soon  forgotten.  He  was  always  thinking  that  he 
would  (deservedly)  be  shot,  and  when  one  day  a 
miserable  Indian  soldier  of  a  guard  of  honour  started 
fumbling  with  his  gun  and  sent  it  off  into  the  ceiling, 
lo  !  the  Governor  swore  that  it  was  an  attempt  to  do 
away  with  him.  He  therefore  had  this  Indian 
suspended  from  the  ceiling  and  precisely  in  the  fashion 
we  have  indicated.  Yet  there  was  no  rising  of  the 
natives ;  they  cannot  be  aroused  so  easily  from 
their  prolonged,  unhealthy  sleep.  No  doubt  it  then 
became  the  duty  of  their  more  enlightened  brethren 
to  protest,  but  in  their  eyes  this  very  Governor  had 
merits,  for  he  was  much  less  addicted  than  his  average 
colleague  to  the  game  of  graft.  Suppose  you  wanted 
a  concession  for  a  tramway  or  a  sanitary  work,  then 
you  would  not  be  favoured  much  if  you  could  claim 
to  be  his  cousin  ;  he  preferred  that  you  should  go  to 
him  accompanied,  if  she  was  comely,  by  your  daughter. 
Just  outside  the  chief  town  of  Chiapas,  140  kilometres 
from  the  station  of  Jalisco,  is  the  house  of  the  conces- 
sions. 4  While  the  highways,'  says  Terry's  guide-book, 
'  are  said  to  be  safe,  the  prudent  traveller  will  travel 
in  the  company  of  someone.'  As  for  Indians  who 
inhabit  the  less  tropic  regions,  as  for  example  the 
Huitchols,  we  are  told  by  Lumholtz  that  they  have 
no  personal  courage  and  they  also  seem  to  be  devoid 
of  cruelty,  for  if  a  man  is  ailing  for  a  longish  period, 


THE  STUDY  OF  MEXICAN  HISTORY  207 


that  is  from  three  weeks  to  four  months,  they  will  not 
let  his  sufferings  continue,  but  with  his  consent  they 
squeeze  the  life  out.  Jars  of  corn  and  beans  are 
scattered  round  the  room,  a  fire  is  lighted  and  the 
patient  is  deposited  upon  a  mat ;  then  he  is  pressed 
with  hands  and  knees.  But  if  we  make  a  study  of  the 
diverse  Indians  of  this  large  Republic — Mayas, 
Zapotecs,  Tarascans  and  the  rest  of  them,  we  certainly 
shall  find  few  vices  and  still  fewer  virtues  that  they 
have  in  common.  They  are  merely  rather  better  than 
the  other  Mexicans,  but  as  they  hitherto  have  played 
so  small  a  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  Republic  we  may 
pass  to  those  of  Spanish  and  of  mingled  blood.  They 
will  themselves  acknowledge  they  are  cruel  to  the 
lower  animals  and  human  beings.  As  for  cowardice  : 
an  operatic  company  was  travelling  by  train  towards 
Irapuato  in  October,  1910.  Six  military  prisoners  were 
being  carried  in  the  same  long,  second-class  saloon, 
their  arms  securely  fastened  and  the  feet  of  some  of 
them  tied  also.  As  a  guard,  there  was  a  youthful  officer 
with  half  a  dozen  men.  The  officer  was  pleased  to 
dally  with  the  chorus-girls.  And  when  a  member  of 
the  escort  asked  him  for  permission  to  supply  tequila 
to  the  prisoners  he  carelessly  gave  his  consent,  and 
soon  this  local  product  of  the  maguey  plant  was  being 
poured  from  beer-bottles  down  six  receptive  throats. 
It  was  not  long  before  the  prisoners  forgot  themselves 
and  started  quarrelling ;  indeed,  so  dire  was  the  effect 
of  the  tequila  on  a  certain  one  that  he  broke  through 
the  officer's  preoccupation,  for  his  words  of  ribaldry 
began  to  make  inaudible  the  words  of  love.  6  Carajo, 
bind  that  fellow  tightly  !  Draw  his  cursed  arms 
together !  '  cried  the  youth,  and  as  the  soldiers 
executed  his  command  the  victim  screamed  for  very 
pain.    He  begged  that  mercy  should  be  shown  him, 


208      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


but  the  chorus-girls  did  not  believe  that  he  was  really 
suffering ;  at  all  events  they  laughed,  and  their 
companion  rose  to  put  a  stop  to  the  discordant 
screaming.  First  he  had  the  luckless  one  securely 
gagged,  a  process  that  one  would  have  thought 
entirely  adequate,  and  afterwards  he  struck  him  in 
the  face  until  the  blood  rushed  forth  all  over  his 
white  garments.  But  before  the  train  arrived  at 
Irapuato,  the  unsightly,  helpless  prisoner  was  taken 
to  the  lavatory,  washed,  ungagged  and  put  in  clean 
apparel.  The  young  officer  was  not  inclined  to  give 
more  punishment,  for  he  ignored  the  fellow's  exclama- 
tions when  he  had  been  put  again  upon  the  seat  among 
the  other  prisoners  :  '  I  am  unfortunate,  you  are  the 
criminal  !  Take  off  your  epaulets  !  I  am  unfortunate, 
by  God  but  you  disgrace  the  army  ! '  And  the  atti- 
tude of  all  the  other  travellers,  all  those  civilians  who 
looked  calmly  on  throughout  the  dastardly  proceeding, 
was  the  attitude  of  cowards.  .  .  .  On  the  strength  of 
this  abominable  story,  to  put  down  the  Mexicans  as 
over-prudent,  does,  I  will  acknowledge,  savour  of 
injustice  and  caprice.  Far  stronger  would  be  my 
indictment  if  I  were  to  take  a  census  of  the  seven -and- 
twenty  States  of  Mexico  in  order  to  reveal  that  they 
possess  so  many  cowards.  But  I  am  not  anxious  to 
indict  this  people  and  I  am  not  even  anxious  to  assure 
you  that  my  diagnosis  is  correct.  The  Englishman 
who  undertook  a  journey  to  Boulogne,  espied  a  girl 
with  flaming  hair  and  travelled  back  at  once  to  tell 
his  countrymen  that  such  was  the  delightful  property 
of  all  the  girls  of  France,  perhaps  he  could  be  routed 
by  statistics.  Yet  we  give  you  our  impressions,  he 
and  I ;  we  saw  the  ruddy  damsel  and  the  cowards. 
It  is  possible  that  if  you  really  want  to  know  how 
Nature  painted  all  the  girls  in  France  you  will  decide 


THE  STUDY  OF  MEXICAN  HISTORY  209 


to  put  your  faith  in  the  statistics  ;  it  is  possible  that 
you  will  be  misled. 

In  Cuba  nowadays  one  hears  a  great  deal  of  the 
prevalent  corruption.  Let  us  not  forget  the  past  of 
Cuba  ;  she,  like  Mexico,  was  educated  by  the  noble 
Spaniards,  and  the  aim  of  this  curriculum  was  to 
produce  such  marvellous,  transcendent  beings  that 
one  cannot  wonder  if  it  failed.  The  people  of  the 
colonies  were  either  left  in  their  own  native  state  of 
ignorance  and  knowledge  or — if  they  were  members  of 
the  ruling  class — it  was  proposed  to  send  them  on 
Icarian  flights,  and  after  they  had  shown  conclusively 
and  often  that  they  were  the  sons  of  earth  and 
earthly  they  were  blamed  for  being  so  corrupt.  This 
mode  of  education  did  not  vanish  with  the  Spaniards. 
For  example,  in  the  charming  little  library  of  Zaca- 
tecas  they  have  got  some  copies  of  the  '  Registro 
Oficial,'  and  one  of  them,  whose  date  is  19th  of 
September,  1830,  has  the  following  announcement : 
'  Jose  Fernandez  de  Leon,  citizen,  professor  by 
examination  in  the  praiseworthy  art  of  first  letters 
and  academician  of  the  same,  participates  that  he 
has  opened  his  establishment  and  pupilage  at  number 
3  in  Damas  Street,  and  that  he  may  accomplish  all 
his  duties  to  the  full  he  must  confine  his  teaching  to 
the  branches  of  orthology,  caligraphy,  arithmetic,  the 
Christian  doctrine  and  orthography,  urbanity,  Cas- 
tilian  grammar — which  deserve  the  first  attention  and 
in  which  he  teaches  boys  according  to  their  age  and 
capability.  Thus  he  is  given  credit,  since  the  honour- 
able people  are  sufficiently  content  with  him  for 
having  kept  his  burden  and  received  so  many  children. 
He  has  now  the  satisfaction  of  beholding  numbers  of 
them  in  illustrious  careers,  an  honour  to  the  State. 
He  takes  this  opportunity  to  make  it  public  that  the 


210      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


help  and  kindness,  cleanliness  and  food  provided  for 
the  children  are  the  best,  and  for  a  moderate  sum.' 
As  in  the  Spanish  days  and  as  in  1830  it  is  usual  that 
pedagogues  propose ;  but  if  they  would  confine 
themselves  to  the  arithmetic — so  that  their  pupils 
who  embrace  a  public  office  will  not  be  accused  of 
graft — then  Mexicans  would  still  be  charging  one 
another  with  corruption.  There  is  that  old,  ingrained 
disposition  to  suspect  their  rulers,  and  political 
experience  was  not  enjoyed  by  many.  We  should 
therefore,  when  we  learn  on  unimpeachable  authority 
in  Mexico  that  Mexicans  are  bad,  believe  that  they 
are  not  so  bad  as  they  are  painted,  and  if  haply  there 
does  not  seem  an  excuse  which  we  can  find  for  them, 
we  shall  have  less  for  those  who  came  before  and 
made  of  politics  a  close  monopoly. 

The  facts  which  have  been  stated  in  this  article 
would  seem  to  disengage  our  love  from  that  which  is 
the  quality  of  being  Mexican.  It  even  may  be  that 
you  will  prefer  the  Count  who  was  si  jeune  et  deja  si 
Moldo-Valache.  And  you  may  argue  that  the  pupils 
of  the  Senor  de  Leon,  citizen,  can  scarcely  have 
achieved  '  illustrious  careers.'  But  we  forget  that 
Sefior  de  Leon  dwelt  in  a  land  of  sunlight  where  a 
person's  foibles  are  not  hidden  and  where  any  slight 
disfigurement  upon  the  face  does  not,  as  in  some 
other  countries,  hide  the  face  that  is  behind  it. 
Aye,  the  Mexicans  do  not  expect  a  man  to  be  a  flawless 
creature.  Let  him  have  the  spots  of  cowardice  and 
cruelty  and  fickleness  and  of  corruption — he  is  not 
disqualified  from  an  illustrious  career.  Sometimes, 
of  course  (but  only  when  the  man  is  dead  or  is  a 
matador),  no  single  spot  will  be  admitted ;  no 
derogatory  word  is  to  be  ever  used  in  speaking  of 
the  early  patriot  Hidalgo,  that  enthusiastic  priest 


THE  STUDY  OF  MEXICAN  HISTORY  211 


who  butchered  many,  or  of  Don  Benito  Juarez,  who 
is  great  enough  to  stand  within  the  light  of  truth. 
Approach  a  Mexican  (not  an  Imperial  relic)  and 
inform  him  that  it  is  your  wish  to  talk  about  the 
slaying  in  the  citadel  of  Mexico,  the  Ciudadela.  After 
you  have  made  it  clear  to  him  that  you  refer  to  the 
terrific  act  of  Don  Benito  he  will  utterly  deny  that 
such  a  thing  took  place,  and  when  his  rage  has  passed 
away  he  will  be  grieving  that  they  should  have  told 
you  such  a  quantity  of  lies.  The  savage  slaughter  in 
the  Ciudadela  has,  indeed,  been  treated  to  the 
reticence  of  Mexican  historians  ;  among  the  few  that 
speak  of  it  is  Don  Ireneo  Paz,  the  famous  publicist, 
who  did  not  only  write  '  Algunas  Campanas  '  [fourth 
edition,  1910],  but  participated  in  them  as  a  soldier 
and  a  writer — he  composed,  for  instance,  the  whole 
Plan  of  Tuxtepec  at  the  request  of  his  unliterary 
friend,  Porfirio  Diaz.  .  .  .  We  who  pride  ourselves 
upon  our  fairness  will  be  apt  to  be  impatient  with  a 
people  that  is  always  going  to  extremes.  Nor  is  it 
possible  for  us  to  get  approximately  at  the  truth  by 
not  believing  any  figure  till  we  have  divided  it  by 
ten  ;  our  old  idea  was  that  the  Latins  of  the  New 
World  could  not  but  exaggerate.  In  '  El  Pais,'  a 
paper  which  was,  like  Iago,  nothing  if  not  critical,  I 
saw  a  notice  of  four  men,  rurales,  who  arrived  at  a 
Chihuahua  station  last  December  in  pursuit  of  rebels  ; 
they  descended  from  the  train,  and  on  the  platform 
were  assassinated  by  the  foe.  This  article  was  called  : 
'  A  disagreeable  occurrence.' 

They  are  contradictory,  these  Mexicans  !  I  came 
out  of  the  library  at  Zacatecas  to  revive  myself  with 
oranges,  because  the  reading  of  those  musty  journals 
makes  one  see  that  there  is  something  in  the  Mexicans 
which  we  shall  never  understand.    About  their  evil 


CHAPTER  X 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 
THE  REVOLUTION  WHICH  BEGAN  IN  1910 
The  Evolution  of  Mexico 

DRAMATIS  PERSONS 


Presidents  of  Mexico 


Vice-Presidents  of 
Mexico 


Prominent  Ministers 


Generals  in  the  Field 


Brigands 


Porfirio  Diaz  (Old  Regime) 

Francisco  L.  de  la  Barra  (Interregnum) 

Francisco  Madero  (New  Regime) 

/Ramon  Corral  (Old  Regime) 
t  Pino  Suarez  (New  Regime) 

I  J.  Y.  Limantour  (Old  Regime),  Finance 
Vera  Estanol  (Dying  days  of  Old  Regime), 

Public  Instruction  and  Interior 
Emilio  Vazquez  Gomez  (Interregnum),  In- 
terior 

Dr.  Vazquez  Gomez  (Interregnum),  Public 
Instruction 

Ernesto  Madero  (Interregnum  and  New 
Regime),  Finance 

Navarro  (Old  Regime) 
Luque  (Old  Re'gime) 
Garcia  Cuellar  (Old  Regime) 
Victoriano  Huerta  (Every  Regime) 
Orozco  (New  Re'gime) 
Ambrosio  Figuera  (New  Regime) 
Pancho  Villa,  ex-brigand  (New  Regime) 
Viljoen,  the  Boer  (New  Regime) 
Luis  Moya  (New  Regime) 

Mucio  Martinez,  Governor  of  Puebla  (Old 
Regime) 

Reyes  Spindola,  Editor  of  e  El  Imparcial ' 

(Old  Regime) 
Zapata,  ex-groom  of  Son-in-law  of  Diaz 
(New  Regime) 

213 


214      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 

Chief  of  Police  General  Felix  Diaz  (Old  Re'gime) 

Orators  /Bulnes  and  Batalla  (Dying  days  of  Old 

\  Regime) 

Exiles  (voluntary  and  j  General  Bernardo  Reyes  (Old  Re'gime) 
otherwise)  \  Many  of  the  above 

(Teodoro  Dehesa,  Governor   of  Veracruz 
Friends  of  PorfirioJ     (a  very  wise  friend) 
Diaz  J  G.  de  Landa  y  Escandon 

v.  Lord  Cowdray 


Underneath  a  shower  of  roses  Don  Porfirio  Diaz 
made  a  progress  through  the  capital  of  his  Republic 
on  the  16th  of  September,  1910,  and  they  were 
celebrating  the  heroic  priest  Hidalgo  whose  enthu- 
siasm, as  it  were,  had  been  the  first  stone  of  the  new 
Republic.  On  the  16th  of  September,  1910 — one 
hundred  years  from  Hidalgo's  rising — Mexico  was 
far  from  being  a  complete  Republic  ;  even  Rome, 
however,  was  not  built  within  a  hundred  years,  and 
Rome  did  not  waste  any  of  her  time  in  arguing  that 
she  possessed  no  slaves.  And  whatsoever  Mexico  had 
left  undone,  she  had  at  any  rate  expelled  the  Spanish 
Viceroy,  she  had  executed  Agustin  de  Iturbide  her 
dashing  son,  when  he  assumed  Imperial  dignities,  and 
she  had  executed  Maximilian  the  stranger.  All  these 
actions  would  have  had  the  strong  approval  of 
Hidalgo,  since  there  could  be  no  Republic  while  such 
men  were  in  the  Palace.  It  would  have  been  irony 
to  eulogise  Hidalgo  if  his  aspirations  had  been  wholly 
disregarded.  But  the  dashing  Iturbide  and  Maximilian 
had  been  slain,  and  that  was  something.  '  Viva  la 
Republica  Mexicana  !  '  Surely  good  Hidalgo  would 
have  frowned  on  Iturbide  when  he  locked  the 
opposition  members  out  of  Congress  ;  such  a  thing 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


215 


could  not  be  done  by  Diaz,  for  there  was  no  opposition 
party  on  the  16th  of  September,  1910.  And  if 
Hidalgo  had  been  in  the  streets  on  that  excited  day 
he  surely  would  have  thrown  some  flowers  (for  the 
President  was  driving  past),  and  if  a  man  asserts  for 
more  than  thirty  years  that  he  is  the  Constitutional 
President,  how  can  one  contradict  him  ?  I  do  not 
think  Hidalgo  would  have  called  him  a  Dictator ; 
for  Hidalgo  was  a  simple  old  enthusiast. 

4  Viva  la  Republica  Mexicana  !  Viva  Don  Porfirio 
Diaz !  Viva  el  General  Diaz !  '  and  his  carriage 
slowly  passes  onward.  At  his  side,  of  course,  is  Don 
Ramon  Corral,  Vice-President,  a  younger  man  though 
pretty  old  in  vice.  The  President  looks  like  a  gallant 
soldier  coming  back  from  a  campaign  :  he  waves  his 
arm  continuously,  gracefully — as  if  he  would  bestow 
on  every  one  of  us  a  laurel  leaf — and  roses  fall  upon  his 
arm.  Corral  is  looking  at  us  with  his  eyes  half-shut — 
as  if  it  were  a  microscope  that  he  were  looking  through, 
to  study  little  creatures  of  repulsive  morals.  By  the 
carriage  and  behind  it  is  the  Presidential  Staff  on 
horseback.  They  are  beautifully  clad,  they  are  a 
handsome  corps — oh,  one  hopes  that  they  will  never 
be  defiled  by  cannon  smoke.  A  lady  on  our  balcony 
has  conceived  a  weakness,  as  have  many  people,  for 
the  bonhomie  of  Colonel  Samuel  Garcia  Cuellar.  She 
exclaims  and  he  salutes  her — in  a  month  or  two  his 
right  hand  will  have  been  shot  off  by  the  insurgents. 

'  Viva  Don  Porfirio  !  '  The  windows  of  his  private 
house  were  broken  on  the  11th  of  September  ;  it 
was  done  by  anti-re-electionists.  But  politicians 
who  express  themselves  in  such  a  way  !  .  .  .  No 
doubt  they  are  disgruntled  voters  who  have  not 
been  able  to  elect  Francisco  I.  Madero.  They 
should  have  the  decency  to  hang  their  heads,  for 


216      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


it  is  due  to  their  untoward  intervention  that 
the  President  has  only  got  ninety-eight -hundredths 1 
of  the  votes  and  by  depriving  him  of  the  re- 
mainder they  have  shown  themselves  unpatriotic. 
And  they  want  it  to  be  thought  that  they  are  patriots  ! 
With  flags  of  the  Republic  they  have  gone  in  a 
procession  to  the  monument  of  Cuauhtemoc,  the 
noble  Aztec.  Yes,  a  band  of  ordinary  citizens  who 
happened  to  be  marching  down  the  road  to  lay  some 
flowers  at  the  feet  of  Cuauhtemoc,  which  Hernan 
Cortes  burned,  allowed  these  anti-re-electionists  to 
join  them.  One  thing  they  had  all  in  common  : 
detestation  of  Corral,  because  he  was  Corral  and 
because  he  was  a  member  of  the  scientific  party,  the 
cientificos, 2  a  guild  of  clever  men  whose  principle  was 
to  exploit  the  country.    They  protested  that  they 

1  '  There  can  be  no  doubt,'  said  'The  Times  '  on  October  27,  1911, 
'  that,  had  Senor  Madero  been  allowed  a  fair  field  in  the  Presidential 
election  of  1911,  his  success  at  the  polls  would  have  been  as  decisive 
as  the  success  of  his  subsequent  appeal  to  arms.'  But  this  is  an  ex- 
aggeration, as — if  we  except  the  Northern  States  of  Coahuila  and 
Chihuahua — those  who  would  have  voted  at  this  moment  for  Madero 
were  the  so-called  intellectuals  and  their  adherents.  *  It  is  estimated 
by  competent  observers,'  so  1  The  Times '  continues,  '  that  90  per  cent 
of  the  population  of  Mexico  were  at  the  time  of  the  Centennial  celebra- 
tions last  year  utterly  hostile  to  the  administration  then  in  power.' 
But  the  prestige  of  Don  Porfirio  would  have  prevailed  ;  it  wanted 
something  more  than  noble  words  for  Don  Francisco  to  inflame  the 
populace. 

2  *  He  governs,'  says  Senor  F.  Garcia  Calderon,  '  with  the  aid  of 
the  "scientific"  party— a  group  which  believes  in  the  virtue  and 
power  of  science,  exiles  theology  and  metaphysics,  denies  mystery 
and  confesses  utilitarianism  as  its  practice  and  positivism  as  its 
doctrine.'  Of  course,  4  cientificos '  was  a  nickname  which  the  party 
did  not  apply  to  itself.  The  above  description  of  them  by  the  young 
Peruvian  writer  is  taken  from  his  admirable  book,  '  Latin  America  : 
its  Rise  and  Progress,'  of  which  an  English  translation  has  recently 
appeared.  At  the  other  end  of  the  scale  is  a  ridiculous  book  by  an 
American,  Mr.  Nevin  O.  Winter,  who  claims  to  be  complete  and 
accurate.  His  book  is  published  in  1913,  and  he  is  so  certain  that 
Porfirio  Diaz  is  the  President  that  he  repeats  the  official  story  of  his 
life,  which  has  been  told  before.  Mr.  Winter  says  that  it  has  not 
been  his  aim  '  to  advance  radical  views.' 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


217 


were  not  politicians,  and  it  is  quite  true  they  only 
interfered  in  politics  when  their  own  interests  could 
be  promoted.  For  a  dozen  years,  as  Don  Porfirio 
grew  older,  they  had  gradually  grown  more  powerful, 
and  now  they  were  surrounding  him  as  with  a  tightly 
woven  palisade  of  gold.  He  had  not  suffered  any 
party  to  concern  itself  with  politics,  a  subject  that 
was  his  and  only  his  ;  but  he  was  unsuspicious  of  the 
cientificos :  lawyers,  deputies  and  business-men  and 
bankers — friends  of  his.  The  chief  of  them  was 
Limantour,  who  was  no  politician  but  his  faithful 
man,  a  man  sent  down  from  heaven  to  arrange  the 
Mexican  finances.  All  these  cientificos  were  estimable 
people,  friends  of  his.  They  had  founded  a  newspaper, 
'  El  Impartial,'  which  was  to  support  his  Government. 
One  day  it  called  him  '  the  divine.'  .  .  .  And  so, 
as  Don  Porfirio  grew  older,  the  cientificos  waxed 
powerful.  Their  private  fortunes  flourished  most 
amazingly  ;  they  helped  each  other,  and  while  they 
were  always  swearing  fealty  to  Don  Porfirio  they  saw 
to  it  that  all  the  Governors  who  were  appointed 
should  be  cientificos.  These  servants  of  the  party 
were,  of  course,  good  Porfiristas — everybody  who  was 
anybody  had  to  be  a  Porfirista — but  they  were  also 
cientificos.  And  in  September,  1910,  there  were  only 
three  Governors,  I  believe,  out  of  the  twenty-seven, 
who  were  unadulterated  Porfiristas,  relics  of  another 
day.  As  for  Corral,  when  he  became  Minister  of  the 
Interior  and  Vice-President,  he  was  not  yet  a  cientifico, 
but  the  party  put  in  Miguel  Macedo  as  his  Under- 
Secretary  and  he  was  won  over.  This  Macedo  and  his 
brother  Pablo,  wisely  sent  by  Limantour  to  London 
to  be  Financial  Agent,1  are  two  little  valetudinarians 
who  are  said  to  have  inherited  their  brains  and  their 

1  This  appointment  has  been  cancelled. 


218     MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Jesuitical  qualities  from  a  Portuguese  ghetto.  They 
are  fascinating  men.  .  .  .  But  all  the  citizens  who 
marched  along  with  flowers  for  Cuauhtemoc  abhorred 
the  cientificos  and  felt  that  Corral  was  a  burden  on 
their  necks  ;  those  anti-re-electionists  went  further 
in  the  business  and  opposed  the  President  because  he 
had  not  freed  the  nation  from  Corral.  And  now,  on 
the  11th  of  September,  the  President  was  going  to 
unveil  a  Pasteur  monument.  These  enemies  of  order, 
said  their  enemies,  must  instantly  be  scattered  to 
the  winds  or  to  Belem.  So  General  Felix  Diaz,1 
the  chief  of  the  police,  rode  with  his  followers 
into  their  midst;  unluckily  the  horses  trampled 
on  the  flags  of  the  Republic  and  on  those  which 
had  Hidalgo's  portrait — which  produced  among  the 
citizens  a  feeling  of  exasperation.  Some  of  them 
were  bold  enough  to  make  for  the  police,  and  with 
chrysanthemums,  their  only  weapons,  to  lash  out 
upon  them.  Who  knows  what  these  desperadoes 
would  have  done  to  Don  Porfirio  ?  The  citizens  were 
just  as  wicked  as  the  anti-re-electionists.  Let  all  of 
them  be  haled  to  Belem.  .  .  .  Ah  !  if  some  had  not 
escaped  and  run  into  the  centre  of  the  town,  with  an 
unheard-of  cry  :  '  Viva  Madero  !  '  Lounging  at  the 
entrance  of  the  Jockey  Club  a  gentleman,  well  versed, 
presumably,  in  other  animals  than  horses,  said  that 
this  was  madness  which  would  have  been  interesting 
to  Pasteur.  4  Viva  Madero  !  Viva  Madero  !  '  The 
gentleman  curled  his  lip.  '  He  is  a  madman,'  he 
observed,  4  that  Pancho  Madero.' 

1  He  is  either  the  nephew  or  the  illegitimate  son  of  Don  Porfirio. 
As  a  chief  of  police  he  was  efficient,  and  he  claims  to  be  able  to  fill  a 
loftier  post.  He  is  said  to  resemble  Don  Porfirio  in  his  perseverance  ; 
whether  he  possesses  any  of  the  other  attributes  of  his  successful 
relative  we  cannot  say.  When  he  and  Huerta  slew  Madero  he  was 
grim  enough,  but  has  he  anything  of  Don  Porfirio's  grim  humour  and 
his  organising  power  ? 


General  Mucio  Martinez. 

See  £.226 


General  Felix  Diaz. 

See  i>.  218 


Vice-President  Ramon  Corral. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


219 


4  Yes,'  replied  another  lounger,  4  he  has  written  a 
book.' 

Headlong  ran  the  citizens,  the  anti-re-electionists. 

But  on  the  16th  of  September  there  was  not  a  sign 
of  them.  As  Don  Porfirio  in  triumph  drove  along 
the  streets  he  made  you  think  about  the  driver  of 
the  horses  of  the  sun.  How  many  of  us  noted 
Corral,  grimly  sitting  at  his  side  ?  The  day  was 
glorious  and  few  of  the  spectators  but  were  blinded. 
In  the  ten  or  twelve  cablegrams  which  every  member 
of  an  embassy  could  send  without  payment — the  first 
experience  of  cabling  for  a  number  of  them — it  is 
probable  that  Don  Porfirio  did  not  find  anything 
worth  being  censored.  Mexico  was  lavish  and  the 
diplomats  were  given  what  they  wanted,  save 
a  moment  for  reflection.  They  made  speeches  on  the 
grandeur  of  the  country.  Don  Porfirio,  they  said  and 
thought,  is  of  all  Presidents  the  most  secure,  since  he 
is  almost  worshipped  by  the  citizens.  Those  dread- 
fully important  diplomats  were  so  much  occupied  in 
finding  adjectives  to  deck  their  speeches  that  they 
could  not  find  the  time  to  visit  Calle  Bucareli,  where 
the  Governor  of  the  District  was  detaining  those 
whom  he  did  not  consider  ornamental.  If  they  had 
been  ambassadors  he  would  have  bought  them 
clothes,  for  when  the  delegates  of  the  Republic  of 
Honduras  made  it  known  that  they  possessed  no 
evening  clothes  the  Foreign  Office  told  them  of  a 
tailor,  whom  they  patronised  and  whose  account  the 
Foreign  Office  duly  settled.  They  were  gratified, 
these  delegates,  and  forthwith  ordered  a  supply  of 
shirts  and  socks,  for  which  again  they  sent  the  bill 
to  the  mistaken  Foreign  Office — I,  if  I  had  been  a 
taxpayer,  would  have  objected  to  this  covering  of 
Honduranean  nakedness  while  fellow- citizens  of  mine 


220      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


were  put  aside  because  they  were  so  ragged.  And  the 
diplomats  were  so  much  taken  up  with  looking  at 
their  portraits  in  the  Governmental  papers — hardly 
one  of  them  had  ever  been  considered  such  a  prophet 
in  his  own  country — that  they  could  not  read  the 
discontented  Press.  If  they  inquired  about  Francisco 
I.  Madero  they  were  told  that  he  was  an  idealist,  a 
visionary  who  was  rich,  a  grandson  of  Don  Evaristo 
Madero,  the  multi-millionaire.  '  Besides,  you  know 
he  never  wrote  that  book  of  his.' 

'  In  fact,'  said  a  diplomatist  who  knew  one  of  the 
three  Porfirista  Governors,  namely,  Don  Teodoro 
Dehesa  of  Veracruz,  '  in  fact  he  followed  the  example 
of  Corral,  who  copied  from  a  dictionary — you  remem- 
ber, doubtless.' 

'  Well,  Madero  is  not  foolish.  He  is  good  at 
business,  but  he  never  wrote  the  book  himself.' 

So  much  one  learned  about  the  man  who  had  come 
into  prominence  by  making  speeches  up  and  down 
the  country  with  the  kind  consent  of  Don  Porfirio, 
and  who  was  locked  up  in  a  prison  on  the  16th  of 
September.  Once  his  propaganda  had  been  thought 
to  be  so  harmless.  He  was  merely  echoing  the 
Constitution  when  he  advocated  an  effective  suffrage 
— oh !  a  very  splendid  thing — and  when  he  was 
opposed  to  re-election  of  the  President  was  he  not 
merely  echoing  the  words  of  Don  Porfirio  ?  *  No 
matter  what  my  friends  and  supporters  say,'  quoth 
Don  Porfirio  at  the  end  of  1907,  '  I  retire  when  my 
present  term  of  office  ends,  and  I  shall  not  serve  again.' 
But  the  President  imagined  that  his  voice  and  that 
of  Don  Francisco  were  both  crying  in  the  wilderness. 
He  looked  with  some  indulgence  on  the  younger  man, 
who  coming  back  from  France  and  luxury  had  settled 
to  drink  water  like  his  peasants  and  to  eat  their  food  ; 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


221 


the  President  had  never  been  unfaithful  to  the  simple 
diet  of  his  ancestors.  But  notwithstanding  Don 
Porfirio' s  attitude,  the  Governors  and  the  police 
were  far  less  gracious  and  they  put  as  many  obstacles 
as  they  could  think  of  in  Madero's  path.  They  told 
the  President  that  everywhere  the  pilgrim  was 
arousing  popular  enthusiasm.  4  It  is  for  the  grand 
old  Constitution,'  said  the  President. 

4  But  he  wants  to  introduce  purity  into  our 
politics  !  ' 

'  We  have  all  been  young — — ' 

And  several  of  the  Governors  sighed,  particularly 
he  of  Aguascalientes,  who  was  at  the  time  of  life  when 
certain  people  love  to  spend  their  days  in  organising 
questionable  fetes  ;  he  of  green  Tabasco,  Abraham 
Bandala,  who  had  come  to  be  so  aged  that  he  had  no 
time  to  give  his  prisoners  a  trial  ere  he  shot  them  ; 
he  of  beautiful  Michoacan — a  territory  almost  virgin 
still — who  was  too  old  to  do  anything  but  stroke  his 
beard. 

4  We  have  all  been  young,'  said  Don  Porfirio,  4  and 
I  have  not  forgotten  the  reforms  that  I  desired  so 
fervidly.' 

4  But  would  it  not  be  safer — — ?  ' 

4 1  have  thought  of  that,'  said  Don  Porfirio,  4  but 
I  don't  want  to  permit  an  accident  if  I  can  help  it. 
He  belongs  to  a  powerful  family.  And  just  because  of 
that  I  tell  you  it  is  better  he  should  beat  the  drum  and 
not  an  upstart  lawyer.  Don't  you  think  that  I  am 
right  ?  ' 

But  afterwards  Don  Pancho  agitated  more  severely, 
stood  for  Presidential  honours — failing  any  other 
candidate — and  thus  he  was  imprisoned,  first  at 
Monterrey,  where  the  Madero  influence  is  strong 
and  where  his  proclamations,  written  in  confinement, 


222      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


showed  that  he  was  author  of  his  book.  Then  they 
transferred  him  to  San  Luis  Potosi.  '  I  am  quite 
disappointed  in  the  man,'  said  Don  Porfirio.  4  Who 
knows  ?  I  might  have  put  him  in  as  Governor  of  the 
State  of  Coahuila,  if  he  had  behaved  himself  ;  we 
really  must  have  young  men  here  and  there.  In 
Sinaloa  I  selected,  on  account  of  this,  Diego  Redo,  and 
although  the  voters  were  absurd  and  had  to  be 
imprisoned.  In  Jalisco  I  have  also  settled  on  a  clever 
youth,  because  I  liked  his  father.  If  the  people  say 
his  cleverness  will,  like  Diego's,  be  employed  for  his 
own  benefit  at  their  expense,  I  answer  them  that  even 
those  who  are  the  youngest  of  us  may  have  learned 
too  much.' 

And  thus  October  came.  Such  diplomats  as  had 
survived  the  hospitalities  went  back,  and  I  presume 
that  those  who  ultimately  paid  the  bill,  poor  Mexicans, 
were  swept  away  from  each  side  of  the  railway  track. 
As  for  the  Government  it  was  contented,  thinking 
that  the  country  had  been  advertised.  Now  Mexico 
would  be  admitted  to  the  brotherhood  of  cultured 
peoples.  She  had  opened  a  new  powder  factory  and 
had  enlarged  the  prison.1  Now  the  fame  of  Don 
Porfirio  would  be  established.  He  would  never  be 
regarded  like  Cabrera,  President  of  Guatemala,  who 
persists  in  clinging  to  his  office  despite  the  sixty-six 
ingenious  and  dull  attempts  which  people  made  upon 

1  Not  to  be  unjust  I  should  say  that  in  this  month  a  University- 
was  founded  and  the  first  stone  of  a  charming  legislative  palace  laid, 
and  the  supply  of  drinking-water  made  more  copious.  As  for  the 
ephemeral  delights,  such  as  a  ball  in  the  Palace  with  30,000  electric 
stars  in  the  ceiling  and  among  the  roses  of  the  specially  constructed 
room — no  other  would  have  held  an  orchestra  of  150 ;  a  fairyland 
entertainment  on  the  rock  of  Chapultepec,  a  mimic  battle  on  a  lake  with 
all  the  fireworks  from  Paris,  a  banquet  in  a  cavern  by  the  Pyramids  of 
the  Sun  and  Moon— and  so  forth  and  so  forth — in  a  bewildering  multi- 
tude, they  must  have  taken  months  of  work,  and,  verily,  each  one 
appeared  to  be  the  work  of  artists. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


223 


his  life  before  he  shut  himself  up  permanently  in  the 
Palace,  and  has  now  to  face  no  peril  but  electric 
currents  that  have  so  far  failed  to  satisfy  the  engineers 
who  put  them  on  the  telephone  and  in  his  bath. 
No  ;  Don  Porfirio  was  President  by  the  desire  of  nearly 
all  the  Mexicans.  '  I  have  so  many  friends  in  the 
Republic,'  he  said  to  Mr.  Creelman,  '  that  my  enemies 
seem  unwilling  to  identify  themselves  with  so  small 
a  minority.'  And  indeed  there  was  no  party  but 
Madero's  which  opposed  his  re-election.  Both  the 
Democratic  and  the  Reyist  parties  were  against  Corral, 
these  latter  having  the  calamitous  desire  to  make 
Bernardo  Reyes  the  Vice-President.  He  is  said  to 
have  been  loved  when  he  was  Governor  of  Nuevo  Leon 
— in  his  first  term  of  office  he  was  not  unpopular.  If 
you  desired  to  win  a  suit  you  had  to  have  his  son-in- 
law  for  counsel,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  we 
are  talking  of  Mexico.  In  his  second  term,  after  Diaz 
had  dismissed  him  ignominiously  from  the  War  Office, 
he  was  cursed  by  passing  peasants  in  the  streets  of 
Monterrey.  He  had  come  back  like  a  beaten  hound. 
He  was  said  to  be  popular  among  the  troops  ;  how 
many  of  them  knew  that  when  he  was  commanding 
at  San  Luis  he  assassinated  a  couple  of  drunken 
soldiers  who  were  lying  on  the  floor  of  the  barracks  ? 
He  looked  in  as  he  was  going  home  from  the  casino 
and  he  shot  them.  If  he  had  become  the  President 
of  Mexico  he  would  with  difficulty  have  been 
hindered  from  embroiling  the  Republic  with  her 
northern  neighbour,  not  merely  because  he  dis- 
liked Americans — when  Mr.  Elihu  Root,  Secre- 
tary of  State,  went  down  to  Mexico  he  was 
the  only  Governor  en  route  who  would  not  go  to 
meet  him  at  the  station — but  his  popularity,  like  his 
appearance,  was  of  the  cowboy  order  ;  his  impulsive- 


224      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


ness  was  only  held  in  check  by  fear  of  Diaz.  It  was 
rumoured  that  no  peso  of  his  money  need  have  any 
shame  about  its  origin,  but  that  alone  is  not  an 
adequate  equipment  for  a  high  official.  When  he  was 
commanded  to  transfer  his  energies  to  Europe  he 
informed  the  Reyist  party  that  he  was  a  soldier  and 
must  go.  He  went  by  night.  A  demonstration  had 
been  planned,  but  the  electric  current  once  again  was 
on  the  side  of  the  authorities,  and  so  the  town  was 
plunged  in  darkness  and  the  sudden  exit  of  Bernardo 
Reyes  was  not  noticed.  Diaz  would  not  let  this  kind 
of  man  become  Vice-President  and  occupy  a  portion 
of  the  limelight.  And  Madero's  party,  I  am  glad  to 
say,  had  resolutely  set  itself  against  the  lofty  aspira- 
tions of  this  General. 

One  might  suppose  the  word  mahana  is  not  in 
the  Mexican  vocabulary,  since  Madero's  rise  became 
so  rapid.  When  he  got  away  from  San  Luis  and 
crossed  the  frontier  at  Laredo  in  disguise,  the  Govern- 
ment was  laughing  at  him.  He  had  made  himself 
ridiculous.  He  would  be  simply  adding  one  more  to 
the  band  of  Mexicans  who  dwelt  perforce  in  the 
United  States,  whence  he  would  undermine  the 
Government  as  much  as  any  of  the  other  discontents  ; 
as  much,  for  instance,  as  the  brothers  Flores  Magon 
by  their  eloquent  socialist  tirades  had  undermined 
it  from  Los  Angeles.  .  .  .  But  the  Madero  movement 
was  preparing  for  a  long  time  in  the  dark.  One  may 
compare  it  with  those  gases  that  assemble  slowly  and 
then  bring  about  an  earthquake. 

Yet  it  so  befell  that  certain  of  the  shocks  were 
premature.  When  everything  was  highly  charged  a 
Mexican  had  the  misfortune  to  be  burned  alive  in 
Texas,  and  this  mode  of  death  was  urged  by  his  own 
countrymen — the  crime  was  heinous.   Then  the  mob 


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DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


225 


of  Mexico's  capital  seized  on  the  opportunity  for  an 
anti-American  riot ;  they  destroyed  some  windows 
and  pulled  down  a  little  flag  that  was  suspended  from 
a  toy-shop.  But  the  whole  affair  was  mild,  especially 
in  view  of  the  hostility  felt  always  for  Americans. 
That  people  has  itself  to  blame  :  the  dignity  of  the 
United  States  is  not  so  much  resented  as  the  impu- 
dence of  individuals  ;  the  great  Republic  does  not 
usually  send  the  better  class  of  its  inhabitants  to 
Mexico,  and  very  striking  is  the  contrast  when  a 
courteous  Indian  peasant  stops  to  pass  the  time  of 
day  with  you.  'Tis  said  that  the  Americans  are  busy 
people,  but  in  Mexico  they  don't  subsist,  like  those 
islanders,  by  taking  in  each  other's  laundry  ;  they 
are  far  more  often  taking  in  each  other.1  And  this 
does  not  earn  them  the  respect  of  the  natives.  There 
was  a  similar  riot  in  Guadalajara,  where  the  Americans 
made  painful  exhibition  of  their  nerves  :  they  filled 
their  houses  both  with  food  and  guns,  nor  would 
emerge  into  the  pleasant  streets  ;  and  there  was  only 
one  life  lost,  that  of  a  local  boy  whom  an  American 
shot  accidentally.  The  riot  in  this  town  of  gardens 
was  produced  directly  by  the  lynching,  as  Rodriguez 
the  sinner  was  a  child  of  this  fair  city.  But  in  Mexico, 
the  capital,  there  was  among  the  rioters  more 
than  a  single  motive.  It  was  animosity  against  the 
Government  which  broke  the  windows  of  '  El  Im- 
parcial.' 

And  thus  in  several  towns  of  the  Republic  those 
Maderists  who  should  not  have  come  as  yet  into  the 
open  were  impelled  to  do  so  by  the  sound  of  turmoil 

1  And  so  there  is  a  story  that  in  such  and  such  a  year  when  the 
uproarious  festivities  of  Thanksgiving  were  at  their  height  in  the 
American  Club  of  Mexico  City,  one  of  the  young  members  rose  to 
make  the  great  suggestion  that  all  present  should  announce  their  real 
names,  for  fun. 

Q 


226      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


that  was  in  the  air.  A  large  supply  of  arms  and 
ammunition  was  discovered  at  Pachuca,  while  at 
Puebla  an  adherent  of  Madero  fired  for  six  hours  on 
the  soldiers  and  police.  Aquiles  Cerdan,  grandson 
on  the  maternal  side  of  a  former  Governor  of  Puebla, 
will  go  down  to  history  as  a  misguided  but  a  valiant 
man.  He  was  assisted  only  by  a  friend  or  two  and  by 
his  family,  the  ladies  shooting  at  the  soldiers  and 
haranguing  the  spectators  with  the  greatest  zeal. 
His  little  son  was  loading  for  him  all  the  day,  regard- 
less of  the  fact  that  he  exposed  himself.  And  on  the 
roofs  and  the  adjacent  church  were  several  hundred 
of  the  foe.  But  Mucio  Martinez,  the  disastrous 
Governor  of  Puebla,  stayed  all  day  inside  the  barracks, 
making  military  dispositions,  so  we  are  told.  The 
fight  was  furious,  and  when  Cabrera  the  policeman 
tried  to  force  an  entrance  Cerdan' s  sister  shot  him 
through  the  heart.1  She  had  been  picking  off  the 
soldiers  with  remarkable  success,  and  Miguel  Cabrera 
was  a  lucky  man  to  meet  his  death  in  such  a  way 
instead  of  in  one  of  the  mediseval  methods  which  he 
had  revived  for  his  profession.  Cerdan  had  no  wish 
to  kill  for  killing's  sake — a  colonel  who  burst  in  upon 
them  was  bound  up  with  ropes  and  locked  into  the 
bathroom.  Ultimately  soldiers  stormed  the  house,  but 
Cerdan  was  not  found  until  some  hours  later,  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,  when  he  disclosed  himself  ;  he 
had  been  hiding  underneath  the  floor.  A  soldier  hap- 
pened to  be  in  the  room  and  Cerdan  gave  himself  up 
to  him,  a  prisoner.  But  he  was  doomed  :  the  military 
man  put  up  his  gun  and  shot  him  dead.  The  corpse 
was  taken  to  the  barracks  ;   presently  in  the  blue 

1  This  lady,  with  a  view  to  doctoring  a  weakness  of  the  heart, 
accompanied  Madero  and  his  family  when,  in  September,  1911,  they 
set  sail  for  Yucatan. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ  227 

garments  of  a  labourer  it  was  displayed  outside  the 
barracks'  door,  to  serve  as  an  example.  He  had 
fought  against  a  despotism,  like  Hidalgo. 

We  are  now  in  the  second  half  of  November.  The 
authorities  are  called  upon  to  stifle  certain  bands  that 
have  appeared  in  old  Tlaxcala,  in  the  State  of  Hidalgo 
and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rio  Blanco,  Orizaba, 
where  the  French  cotton-mill  proprietors  are  not  in 
fear  of  any  Truck  Act  and  where  consequently  it  is  very 
simple  to  persuade  the  men  to  be  Maderists.  But  the 
factory,  since  that  affair  of  1908,  has  always  got 
sufficient  soldiers  on  the  premises,  and  there  it  seems 
that  Don  Porfirio  is  executing — that  is  just  the  word 
— those  drastic  notions  of  the  traveller  who  said  that 
Mexico  would  be  a  fine  place  if  it  were  not  for  the 
Mexicans.  .  .  .  These  premature  uprisings  are  de- 
feated ;  many  luckless  fellows  go  to  prison  and  the 
Government  congratulate  themselves  that  all  has 
ended  well.  '  The  plans  of  Madero  have  utterly 
failed,'  says  the  'Mexican  Herald,'  a  subsidised 
newspaper  written  in  American.  '  The  Government 
of  to-day  is  strong,  rich  and  efficient,  besides  having 
the  support  of  the  immense  majority  of  the  country's 
inhabitants  and  the  moral  weight  of  an  enlightened 
public  opinion  in  its  favour.'  The  '  Mexican  Herald  ' 
is  a  sheet  which  rubs  one  the  wrong  way  ;  forty  years 
ago  the  country  inns  had  always  got  a  pile  of  news- 
papers against  the  coming  of  a  coach  whose  pas- 
sengers the  brigands  had  entirely  stripped.  The 
'  Herald  '  was  not  in  existence  then,  no  more  was  I, 
but  what  a  destiny  it  would  have  been  to  find  oneself 
enveloped  in  a  paper  such  as  that  !  '  As  for  Senor 
Madero,'  it  says  on  19th  of  November,  1910,  '  if  his 
share  in  this  affair  is  as  represented,  he  will  lose  what 
little  credit  remained  to  him  in  the  judgment  of  all 


228      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


right-minded  persons.'  Unluckily  for  the  Govern- 
ment and  its  insincere  acolytes,  Madero  had  a  good 
deal  of  credit  at  the  banks.  And  this  egregious 
4  Herald  '  also  says  that :  '  We  do  not,  however, 
attach  undue  importance  to  this  aberration,  to  this 
so-called  Maderist  conspiracy.  ...  Is  Madero  in  his 
right  mind  ?  '  I  believe  the  '  Herald  '  did  discover 
that  he  had  a  liberal  mind  and  would  allow  them  to 
continue  to  endanger  their  immortal  souls  if  so  it 
pleased  them.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  they 
resolved  to  say  what  they  believed,  they  certainly 
had  got  no  ground  for  hoping  that  he  would  reward 
them  with  a  subsidy.  The  Government  was  in 
November  as  mistaken  as  the  '  Herald,'  but  it  erred 
through  folly  and  the  fools  have  got  a  certain  right 
to  be  forgiven.  Among  those  people  who  are 
taken  up  in  Mexico,  to  gaol,  are  a  number  of  poor 
peasants  and  a  number  of  more  educated  men,  such  as 
an  engineer  1  who  had  been  nominated  by  Madero 
as  provisional  Governor  of  Tlaxcala.  This  gentleman, 
Manuel  Urquidi,  employed  his  time  in  learning 
German  and  translating  from  that  tongue  a  book  on 
electricity.  The  man  who  has  misgoverned  poor 
Tlaxcala  for  some  four-and-twenty  years  is  not  too 
brilliant  in  Spanish.  The  educated  captives  are 
retained  for  months  without  a  trial,  in  accordance 
with  the  customs  that  have  hitherto  prevailed  in 
Mexico  ;  the  helpless  peasants  when  they  are  found 
innocent  are  told  that  they  may  go.  Suppose  they 
come  from  Orizaba  and  do  not  possess  the  rail- 
way fare — well,  they  will  not  get  home  quite  so 
quickly. 

1  When  the  Revolution  triumphed  he  became  an  Under-Secretary 
of  State. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


229 


About  this  time  the  northern  States  of  Coahuila 
and  immense  Chihuahua  showed  that  they  would 
want  some  pacifying.  But  the  Government  was  not 
uneasy.  It  would  drive  the  Coahuila  rebels  into  the 
inhospitable  mountains  that  contain  4  40  species  of 
mammals,  16  reptiles,  5  batrachians,  4  fishes  and 
almost  numberless  insects.'  '  In  Chihuahua,  Senores,' 
said  General  Diaz  to  a  deputation  from  his  native 
State,  '  it  is  a  thing  of  no  importance.  If  they  ever 
reach  five  thousand  I  shall  take  the  field  myself, 
despite  my  years.'  When  they  passed  that  number, 
reaching  far  beyond  it,  they  were  over  all  the  country, 
and  perhaps  he  thought  that  it  was  better  if  he  stayed 
at  home  and  moved  the  little  flags  about  upon  the 
map  which  he  had  on  the  billiard  table.  To  this 
deputation  from  Oaxaca  he  said  also  that  the  whole 
revolt  was  with  the  object  of  depressing  Mexican 
securities.  If  this  were  true  it  would  be  needful  for 
us  to  revise  our  sentiments  regarding  the  idealism  of 
Madero.  That  the  stocks  were  kept  comparatively 
motionless  was  due  to  the  activity  of  Mexican  financial 
agents  in  the  Old  World — buying,  buying,  buying. 
I  do  not  believe  that  Cerdan  or  Madero  had  this  kind  of 
impulse.  Certainly  it  seems  peculiar  that  any  man 
should  for  six  hours  be  facing  certain  death  in  order 
that  the  Mexican  securities  should  fall.  Perhaps  the 
President  believed  what  he  was  saying  and  the  simple- 
minded  populace  is  always  ready  to  ascribe  to  the 
financiers  that  which  otherwise  is  dark,  inscrutable. 
Of  course,  it  is  the  work  of  those  nefarious  financiers  ! 
And  at  this  time  Senor  Limantour  in  Paris  was 
attempting  to  convert  the  other  half  of  the  Mexican 
debt.  He  found,  however,  that  financiers  were  not 
buying,  buying.  I  am  told  that  he  denied  in  the 
'  Figaro  '  that  there  was  any  truth  in  certain  cables 


230      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


then  appearing  in  '  The  Times.' 1  But  the  financiers 
would  not  buy. 

Meanwhile  there  was  much  activity  among  the 
rebels  of  Chihuahua,  and  they  were  not  disconcerted 
when  the  Government  denounced  them  as  so  many 
bandits.  It  is  true  that  there  and  elsewhere  they 
would  liberate  the  prisoners,  but  these  were  often 
held  in  custody  for  a  political  offence  or  the  suspicion 
that  they  were  acquainted  with  the  family  of  a 
political  offender.  Pascual  Orozco,  junior,  who  now 
appeared  as  military  chief  of  the  insurgents  of 
Chihuahua,  was  resolved  to  punish  without  mercy 
those  who  should  give  way  to  brigandage.  This 
Pascual  Orozco  used  to  convoy  silver  from  the  mines 
into  the  city  of  Chihuahua,  being  very  much  re- 
spected. 2  His  adherents  were  not  in  the  field  exclusively 
to  fight  for  Don  Francisco's  plans  concerning  suffrage 
and  no  re-election.  They  had  been  so  thoroughly 
exasperated  by  the  local  Government,  the  jefes 
politicos,  who  were  not  more  arbitrary  in  Chihuahua 
than  in  other  parts,  but  the  inhabitants  of  those  wild 

1  But  when  you  are  in  Paris  and  discourse  about  a  distant  country  you 
have  not  the  means  or  inclination  and  the  leisure  always  to  be  accurate. 
'The  Press  in  Mexico,'  said  Limantour,  'is  never  censored.'  I  could 
laugh  at  such  a  thought !  At  six  o'clock  each  evening  a  gentleman 
came  from  Chapultepec  to  '  El  Pais.'  He  did  not  say,  '  Thou  shalt  not 
print  this  telegram, '  but  as  a  friend  who  had  peculiar  access  to  the 
truth,  he  deprecated  the  appearance  of  an  un veracious  message.  On 
the  true  ones  he  was  wont  to  put  his  imprint,  ■  O.K.,'  in  blue  ink. 

2  He  returned  to  this  career  when  the  new  Government,  which  he 
so  greatly  helped  to  bring  about,  was  well  established.  As  he  reached 
Chihuahua  city  in  the  flush  of  triumph  nothing  less  could  satisfy  his 
worshippers  than  to  demand  for  him  the  Governorship.  He  took, 
however,  the  command  of  the  State  rural  forces  at  a  salary  of  8  pesos 
a  day  ;  it  was  he  who  listened  to  the  multitude  who  had  complaints 
to  bring,  and  thus  his  popularity  increased  still  further.  He  remained 
to  quell  disturbances  which  the  elections  might  produce,  then  he 
withdrew  to  private  life.  .  .  .  And  then  he  took  the  field  again, 
Madero  being  President.  Perhaps  Orozco  simply  was  dissatisfied 
because  of  the  delay  in  settling  the  agrarian  question,  and  perhaps  he 
could  withstand  his  worshippers  no  longer. 


Pascual  Orozco. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


231 


regions  are  not  so  long-suffering  as  many  of  their 
brothers.  Also  in  Chihuahua  was  the  question  of 
gigantic  haciendas,  which,  besides  the  direct  damage 
that  they  do  to  the  small  farmers,  have  an  evil 
reputation  in  the  matter  of  tax  assessment,  while 
they  are  apt  to  leave  great  stretches  of  the  country 
undeveloped  :  Limantour  came  back  from  France 
with  land  legislation  on  his  programme.  .  .  .  Well, 
Orozco  showed  himself  a  competent  guerilla  chieftain. 
There  was  sent  against  him  General  Navarro,  who  is 
not  adapted  to  this  kind  of  warfare.  He  is  elephan- 
tine, moving  with  enormous  care,  and  with  an  over- 
whelming army.  He  did  not  wish  to  experience  the  fate 
of  one  of  his  commanders  in  the  gorge  Malpaso.  Thus 
he  travelled  carefully  and  saw  no  rebels.  Towns  and 
villages  along  the  Mexican  North- Western  Railway 
and  as  far  west  as  the  borders  of  Sonora  were  con- 
tinually being  taken.  6  In  a  little  time,'  the  Govern- 
ment declared,  '  we  shall  surround  them.  Have  no 
fear.'  But  those  who  knew  how  formidable  was  the 
nature  of  the  country  said  that  it  would  be  as  well 
to  come  to  terms  by  changing  some  of  the  detested 
jefes.  Those  who  knew  how  bitter  was  the  feeling 
and  how  wide  a  sympathy  was  felt  for  the  insurgents, 
thought  that  Don  Ramon  Corral,  whose  health  was 
shattered  by  his  mode  of  life,  should  not  become 
Vice-President.  If  only  Don  Porfirio  had  recognised 
his  grand  mistake  of  having  forced  the  people  to 
accept  this  man !  He  knew  the  feeling,  for  about  the 
20th  of  June,  1910,  he  had  had  a  conference  with 
Dr.  Vazquez  Gomez  on  this  subject,  and  he  said, 
'  I  am  convinced  that  if  I  go  away  and  Corral  serves 
as  President  for  two  months  there  will  be  a  revolu- 
tion.' But  though  he  did  consult  the  famous  doctor 
for  his  deafness,  he  was  deaf  to  his  political  advice. 


232      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


And  Vazquez  Gomez,  afterwards  elected  to  the  Vice- 
Presidency  of  the  Anti-Re-electionist  Club,  informed 
him  that  his  own  continuance  in  office  could  perhaps 
be  tolerated,  but  that  Corral's  resignation  was  essen- 
tial. Diaz  thought  that  he  would  live  through  this 
term  and  the  next,  wherefore  it  did  not  matter 
in  the  least  who  was  Vice-President.  He  had  the 
comfortable  feeling  that  he  would  attend  the 
funeral  of  Corral  [he  did  so,  but  in  Paris] — in  the 
meantime  let  him  be  Vice-President,  because  he  did 
what  he  was  told.  If  people  hinted  that  it  was 
unpatriotic  to  have  such  uncertainty  attached  to  the 
succession,  he  replied  that  he  knew  best.  .  .  .  Many 
Governors  and  others  have  since  then  been  incapaci- 
tated by  an  illness  so  persistent  that  it  has  obliged 
them  to  retire  to  Paris1  or  at  least  to  Mexico  City. 
And  Corral  was  in  a  dreadful  state.  (The  specialists 
whom  he  frequented  afterwards,  in  Paris  and  in 
Berlin,  could  not  help  him.)  But  Don  Porfirio 
did  not  propose  to  let  himself  be  dominated  by  the 
followers  of  mad  Madero.  He  himself  was  not 
distressed  at  all,  but  like  a  war-horse  in  the  meadows 
he  was  young  again.  For  several  years  he  had  not 
felt  like  this.  And  on  the  first  day  of  December  he 
and  Corral  took  the  oath  :  he  with  a  hoarse,  loud, 
jovial  voice,  Corral  as  one  who  scarcely  knows  what 
he  is  saying.  Don  Ramon  himself  had  begged  the 
President  to  let  him  go  back  into  private  life,  to 
supervise  his  vast  possessions  in  Sonora  ;  but  the 
President  was  obdurate  and  Corral  took  the  fatal  oath. 
If  only  Don  Porfirio  had  listened  !  And  if  he  also  had 
resigned  he  would  have  put  a  crown  on  his  career. 

j,1  This  wealthy  colony  is  called  *  Colonia  de  la  Bolsa.'  One  of  the 
parts  of  Mexico  City,  the  haunt  of  pickpockets  and  others,  is  known 
by  this  name.    (Bolsa  = purse.) 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


233 


But  when  he  tentatively  bruited  this,  at  once  the 
flatterers,  the  courtiers,  the  4  Society  of  Friends  of 
General  Diaz '  rushed  round  to  Chapultepec  and 
begged  him  as  a  patriot  to  reconsider — and  I  do  not 
say  that  they  were  under  the  necessity  of  bringing 
forward  many  arguments.  For  one  thing  he  would 
not  have  heard  them,  as  he  sobbed  so  loudly.1 

So  the  beginning  of  December  found  things  rather 
doubtful  in  Chihuahua,  though  that  misnamed  organ 
6  El  Imparcial '  said  every  day  that  Pascual  Orozco's 
forces  had  in  the  last  four-and-twenty  hours  been 
decimated  and  disheartened.2  Things  were  likewise 
dubious  in  many  regions  of  the  country  and  in  the 
capital.  These  oaths  should  have  been  taken  in  the 
newly  built  chamber,  which  was  furnished  down  to 
the  spittoons.  It  is  a  place  from  which  the  public 
cannot  be  excluded.  We  were  told  that  it  was 
incomplete  and  that  the  ceremony  would  take  place 
inside  the  School  of  Mines,  a  venerable  and  exclusive 

1  The  fount  of  tears  in  Don  Porfirio  was  never  dried.  On  these 
occasions  when  he  let  himself  be  nominated  once  again  he  used  to 
weep,  and  when  he  paid  his  annual  official  homage  at  the  tomb  of 
Juarez,  though  he  is  reported  to  have  subsidised  a  book  which 
ineffectually  tried  to  drag  the  great  man  from  his  pedestal.  '  Oh,  my 
great  teacher ! '  Don  Porfirio  would  cry,  *  oh,  my  great  teacher ! ' 
And  in  the  proclamation  which  he  issued  once  at  Huajuapan,  he  in- 
vited Mexicans  to  choose  between  himself  and  Juarez — '  Juarez 
who  has  dreamed  he  is  a  prince,  Juarez  the  coward  with  his  insensate 
despotism,  Juarez  with  his  mob  of  vile  Cubans  and  of  cringing  para- 
sites.' He  urged  the  Mexicans  to  choose  between  this  Juaraz  'who 
by  Machiavellian  wiles  has  managed  to  implant  a  poison  in  your 
hearts '  and  Diaz  who  is  '  your  sincere  friend,  your  brother.  Let 
them  choose  between  a  disloyal,  tyrannical  and  parricidal  government ' 
and  Diaz.  Then  he  used  to  weep  beside  the  tomb,  but  '  the  tears  of 
penitents,'  says  Saint  Bernard,  'are  the  wine  of  angels.' 

2  If  only  we  could  feel  as  much  confidence  in  this  official  chronicler 
as  in  old  Bernal  Diaz,  the  conquistador,  who,  for  example,  when  he 
writes  about  the  battle  of  Otumba,  says  that  certainly  on  this  occa- 
sion it  was  owing  to  the  presence  of  St.  James  astride  his  milk- 
white  courser  that  the  victory  was  with  the  Spaniards.  '  I  myself,' 
he  says,  '  did  not  behold  him,  and  this  was,  no  doubt,  because  of  my 
innumerable  sins.' 


234      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


structure  that  is  sinking  into  the  uncertain  ground. 
The  President  came  by  a  route  that  was  changed  at 
the  last  moment,  and  though  Mexicans  are  undemon- 
strative on  these  occasions  it  was  strange  that  we,  the 
foreigners,  should  be  the  only  ones  to  greet  the  old 
man  on  his  way.  ...  It  would  be  wearisome  to  give 
the  marches  and  the  countermarches  of  Chihuahua, 
when  this  town  or  village  was  acquired  by  the 
insurgents,  how  they  burned  the  archives — and  their 
past,  as  by  the  tyrant  jefes  it  had  been  recorded  ; 
how  the  cumbersome  Navarro  made  his  progress 
through  the  district  and  how  some  of  his  subordinates 
achieved  distinction.  How  the  villagers  did  all  that 
in  them  lay  to  help  Orozco,  firing  on  the  Federals  from 
roofs  and  hill-tops,  not  providing  them  with  any  food. 
How  small  were  the  demands  of  the  sombre-clad 
troops  !  Such  food  as  the  soldaderas,  their  resourceful 
female  comrades,  could  collect,  and  such  medical 
attendance  as  the  soldaderas  could  bestow,  and  they 
were  satisfied.  I  met  a  doctor  in  Chihuahua  City 
who  had  offered  to  betake  himself  to  any  part  where 
Federals  were  operating  ;  this  was  not  accepted,  as 
they  had  one  doctor  with  the  troops.1  There  is  a 
Mexican  Red  Cross  Society,  but  as  it  waited  until 
April,  1911,  before  it  said  that  under  certain  circum- 
stances it  would  take  the  field — we  shall  postpone 
discussing  it.  How  faint  was  the  enthusiasm  for  this 
war,  among  the  Federals  !  '  They  are  our  compadres,' 

1  Before  we  are  indignant  with  Navarro  let  us  have  the  fairness 
to  examine  how  the  native  invalid  was  being  treated  in  the  towns.  At 
Cuernavaca,  which  is  something  of  a  show-place,  a  resort  of  pleasure, 
there  was  at  this  time  and  for  long  afterwards  one  hospital  in  which 
4  the  beds  have  strong  iron  frames,  but  plain  boards  take  the  place  of 
a  mattress.  There  are  no  sheets,  no  clothing  for  the  sick  or  wounded, 
and  when  a  patient  is  carried  to  the  hospital  .  .  .  the  clothing  in 
which  they  arrive  is  never  changed,  and  the  only  protecting  cover  is  a 
blanket  .  .  .  and,  despite  it  all,  some  are  known  to  have  recovered. 
The  only  precaution  ever  credited  to  the  place  seems  to  be  con- 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


235 


so  they  said  ;  and  yet  in  spite  of  everything  these 
men  of  Don  Pornrio,  gaol-birds  mostly  and  political 
prisoners,  did  not  en  masse  go  over  to  the  rebels.  It 
is  true  they  went  in  small  detachments,  jumping  from 
the  trains  if  there  was  not  an  officer  with  a  revolver 
at  the  door  ;  and  four  of  them  in  uniform  came  to  the 
hacienda  of  an  Englishman,  requesting  some  employ- 
ment. As  the  war  prolonged  itself,  this  kind  of  thing 
became  more  common  :  soldiers  could  be  seen  at 
Ciudad  Juarez  actually  pulling  off  their  stripes  as 
they  descended  from  the  train ;  nor  could  the  officers 
be  totally  impassive  to  the  glamour  of  the  Liberating 
Army,  as  Madero  with  good  reason  styled  his  forces. 
General  Luque1  suffered  most  severely  ;  he  promoted 
a  young  Yucatecan  officer  called  Pino  not  alone  for 
his  deserts,  but  owing  to  the  vacant  places.  One  day, 
near  to  Juarez,  eighty  federals  were  sent  to  give  their 
horses  water  ;  sixty  of  these  men  evaporated.  But 
the  Government,  who  took  precautions  not  to  let 
these  incidents  be  known,  believed  that  this  was 
natural  if  Mexican  met  Mexican.  That  there  was  any 
widespread  sympathy  for  this  Madero  they  did  not 
believe.  He  had  proclaimed  himself  4  Provisional 
President,'  and  been  inaugurated  on  his  property  in 

nected  with  a  man  suffering  from  what  is  believed  to  be  leprosy.  He 
has  a  room  apart  from  the  others  and  is  kept  under  heavy  guard.  In 
the  general  ward  patients  with  open  wounds  were  bunched  with  those 
suffering  from  infectious  diseases.  Two  convalescent  patients,  one 
suffering  from  black  smallpox  and  the  other  from  erysipelas,  took 
their  meals  from  the  same  dish.  The  only  desire  of  the  patients  who 
have  any  interest  in  life  is  to  escape.  At  night  it  is  necessary  to 
place  heavy  locks  on  the  doors,  and  in  the  daytime  a  guard  is  neces- 
sary to  keep  a  watch  on  those  who  are  able  to  crawl  or  walk. ' 

1  Luque  is  the  man  who,  several  months  before,  when  Yucatan  had 
some  domestic  troubles,  urged  his  soldiers  to  possess  themselves  of 
Valladolid  by  promising  rewards  that  are  not  usually  given  nowadays. 
He  let  them  sack  the  town,  a  Mexican  town  !  But  some  of  the 
victims  were  not  Mexicans  ;  some  of  them  were  Turkish  women  whose 
ear-rings  were  pulled  roughly  out,  and  a  Turkish  girl  of  twelve  who 
was  so  treated  that  she  died  on  the  following  day. 


236      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Coahuila  at  the  same  hour  as  Porfirio  Diaz  spoke  the 
formula  in  Mexico  City.  Oh  !  he  was  a  mountebank. 
But  it  would  be  as  well  to  stop  his  wretched  escapade 
— the  eyes  of  all  the  world  seemed  to  be  veering  round 
to  Mexico.  And  Diaz  thought  about  1  The  Tiger  of 
Santa  Julia,'  one  Negrete,  who  had  slain  his  seventeen 
men  and  was  himself  now  to  be  shot.  The  good 
old  days,  the  good  old  days  in  which  the  Government 
would  have  employed  this  fearless,  indefatigable 
personage  in  Coahuila,  with  the  promise  of  free  pardon 
if  he  did  the  job.  Aye,  Diaz  thought  about  the  Tiger 
very  wistfully.  This  was  what  they  had  to  pay  for 
being  so  much  civilised.  He  sent  commissioners  into 
Chihuahua  with  an  offer,  but  the  rebels  who  remained 
in  arms  would  have  the  punishment  of  death.  These 
overtures  were  not  accepted,  and  the  rebels  went 
about  their  business  doggedly.  They  were  not  paid, 
but  care  was  taken  of  their  families.  And  when  they 
rode  into  a  village  for  provisions  they  would  either 
pay  for  them  or  give  a  note  that  would  be  honoured 
when  the  cause  had  triumphed.  Many  foreigners,  in 
mining  camps  and  so  forth,  who  exchanged  supplies 
for  notes  were  rather  under  the  impression  that 
they  had  been  robbed.  And  other  foreigners  were 
disinclined  to  put  their  money  on  the  rebels. 
'  This  affair  will  be  forgotten  in  a  month,'  Lord 
Cowdray  said  to  me  when  I  returned  from 
Chihuahua  before  Christmas ;  and  during  one 
and  a  half  hours  he  tried — in  such  English  as  he 
commands,  which  at  all  events  is  superior  to  his 
Spanish — he  tried  to  induce  me  to  send  a  certain 
cablegram  to  '  The  Times.'  '  You  can  write  or  cable 
that  you  stake  your  reputation  on  it.'  I  demurred, 
but  he  was  positive.  And  as  he  had  known  Mexico 
for  many  years  and  many  parts  of  Mexico,  I  suggested 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


237 


that  it  would  be  well  to  give  his  name  and  say  that  he 
would  stake  his  reputation  that  within  a  month,  etc. 
He  hesitated,  on  account  of  modesty.  But  afterwards 
he  said  that  he  was  willing.1  4  Ask  him,'  writes 
Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  who  admires  in  him  the 
man  of  action,  'ask  him  why  President  Diaz 
outlived  his  power  in  Mexico,  and  he  will 
say  a  few  words.'  And,  alas  !  on  7th  of  May, 
1911,  Don  Porfirio  said  in  a  proclamation  that 
4  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  when  the  disturbances 
will  end.'  Perhaps  Lord  Cowdray  thought  the 
rebels'  strength  had  been  exaggerated  ;  anyhow,  the 
Government  was  strong  enough  to  spare  him  250  of 
their  most  competent  warriors — the  rural  police. 
At  a  distance  of  25  feet  from  each  other  they  had  to 
prevent  the  irritated  Indians  from  approaching  too 
near  to  an  oil-polluted  river  and  igniting  it  as  a 
revenge  for  having  their  supply  of  water  ruined. 
'  The  President  is  intensely  loved  and  admired,'  said 
Lord  Cowdray,  4  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  country.'  And  if  Don  Porfirio  had  followed 
good  advice  he  would  have  known  that  there  are 
times  when  you  should  not  press  down  your  system 
so  profoundly  on  the  people.  You  may  go  so  far  that 
of  a  sudden  with  resistless  violence  they  hurl  them- 
selves into  the  air,  destroying  your  machinery ; 
and  as  they  fall  upon  your  fields  and  rivers  change 
them  utterly. 

With  the  new  year  no  assistance  came  to  Don 
Porfirio  from  the  inferior  officials,  those  who  are  in 

1  I  have  not  singled  out  his  firm  to  make  remarks  upon ;  it 
simply  forced  itself,  beyond  all  others,  on  my  notice.  When  Lord 
Cowdray,  for  example,  aired  himself  as  to  Madero,  and  was  urging  me 
to  send  that  optimistic  cable  to  '  The  Times,'  I  had  not  asked  for  his 
opinion ;  and  now,  looking  back  with  wisdom  that  comes  after  the 
event,  he  must  be  glad  that  I  did  not  dispatch  the  cable. 


238      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


closest  contact  with  the  people  everywhere.  c  The 
smaller  saints,'  says  a  Bulgarian  proverb,  '  will  be  the 
ruin  of  God.'  Yet  if  wisdom  travels  slowly  to  the 
Governors  of  Mexico  (except  Don  Teodoro  Dehesa) 
it  cannot  be  expected  to  go  very  hot-foot  to  the  jefe 
'politico  of  an  outlying  district.  For  so  many  years 
the  country  has  enjoyed  a  sort  of  peace,  and  Don 
Porfirio  has  said  that  anyone  who  breaks  it  shall  be 
drowned  in  his  own  blood.  The  jefes,  therefore,  made 
no  effort  to  conciliate  the  Revolution ;  on  the  contrary, 
they  were  fomenting  it,  as  they  saw  nothing  but 
Maderists  and  Maderists,  whom,  of  course,  they  had 
to  crush.  Their  private  enemies  assumed  the  shape 
of  damnable  Maderists,  but  if  you  did  anything  at  all 
or  nothing  it  was  always  at  the  heavy  risk  of  being 
branded.  In  the  State  of  Puebla,  for  example,  dwelt 
an  idle  jefe  who  made  over  his  administration  to  a 
lady  friend.  She  mulcted  people,  put  them  into 
prison,  just  as  if  she  were  the  jefe.  One  day,  after 
having  listened  to  a  husband's  story,  she  commanded 
that  the  lover  of  his  wandering  wife  should  be 
imprisoned.  She  did  not  inquire  the  name,  but  when 
this  gentleman  was  in  the  lock-up  he  sent  word  to  her 
that  he  was  grieved,  and  then  she  knew  that  she  had 
dealt  with  a  dear  friend.  '  Yes,  yes,'  he  said  when 
he  was  talking  to  her  after  his  release,  '  but  now  the 
husband  is  at  large  and  it  is  inconvenient.'  So  forth- 
with she  gave  orders  that  the  husband  should  be  taken 
to  the  cell  from  which  the  lover  had  been  rescued. 
'  God  above  me  !  What  have  J  done  ?  Why  should 
J  be  here  ?  '  exclaimed  the  husband.  And  the  lady 
answered,  6  You  are  a  Maderist.'  .  .  .  Revolution- 
aries were  thus  manufactured  in  all  parts  of  the  Re- 
public, only  two  small  States,  Colima  and  Queretaro, 
both  very  backward  States,  not  coming  into  line. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


239 


With  the  suspension  of  the  guarantees  a  little  later, 
those  who  fell  into  official  clutches  were  disposed  of 
very  swiftly.  And  where  one  was  slain  a  dozen  rose. 
It  then  began  to  exercise  the  Government  as  to  the 
money  of  their  foe.  This  could  not  emanate  entirely 
from  the  pocket  of  Madero.  What  proportion  came 
from  the  United  States  ?  A  good  deal,  certainly. 
Madero  said  that  he  would  write  a  book  to  demonstrate 
that  nothing  was  received  from  the  Americans.  But 
among  the  very  large  number  of  Mexicans  who  lived 
in  the  United  States — owing  to  their  President  and 
owing  to  the  desperate  condition  of  the  labourer — 
much  sympathy  was  felt  with  the  insurgents.  Of  all 
the  twenty-seven  Republics  in  America  there  is  but 
one  from  which  the  people  emigrate.  A  labourer  in 
Mexico  is  the  most  patient  of  all  animals  ;  yet  he 
will  turn.  Between  his  master  and  the  law's  caprice 
he  is  not  to  be  envied.  Possibly  he  finds  that  the 
United  States  are  paved  with  other  things  than  gold  ; 
however,  he  will  have  enough  to  send  a  contribution 
even  if  it  be  not  more  per  week  than  what  his  village 
schoolmaster  could  earn  in  Mexico,  about  4s.  6d. 
It  may  be  thought  that  this  is  not  a  princely  wage  for 
pedagogues,  but  in  the  State  of  Zacatecas  it  would  be 
appreciated,  for  the  Governor  sent  out  a  document 
not  long  ago  which  stated  that  there  were  no  funds 
available  for  such  a  purpose  and  advising  all  the 
schoolmasters  to  seek  another  occupation.  Zacatecas 
is  supposed  to  be  a  wealthy  mining  state.  When 
Luis  Moya,  the  insurgent  chief,  began  to  take  it  and 
Durango  under  his  control,  he  forced  the  banks  to 
pay  him  what  was  standing  to  the  credit  of  the  tax- 
collectors,  while  he  paid  a  schoolmistress,  and  I 
presume  the  schoolmasters,  whose  salary  had  not 
been  given  them. 


240      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


This  digression  shows  that  the  official  Mexico  was 
somewhat  barbarous  and  that  if  the  Revolutionaries, 
save  those  who  were  with  Madero  and  Orozco,  were 
such  bandits  as  the  Government  declared,  it  would 
have  been  to  the  general  benefit  if  the  supply  of  them 
could  have  been  multiplied.  .  .  .  The  contributions 
of  expatriated  Mexicans  were  not  the  only  ones  that 
came  from  the  United  States,  for  it  was  by  this  route 
that  opulent  and  more  enlightened  landowners  of 
Mexico  contributed.  Although  no  money  was  received 
from  the  Americans,  Madero  could  not  close  his  ranks 
to  volunteers,  who  were  impelled  by  love  of  freedom. 
In  America,  that  is  to  say  among  the  population  of 
the  street  and  plain,  the  government  of  Don  Porfirio 
was  anything  but  popular  :  they  had  perceived  that 
it  was  a  burlesque  Republic,  while  the  presence  of 
political  offenders  and  the  publication  of  a  certain 
set  of  articles  were  influencing  many.  Whether  the 
young  volunteers  were  animated  by  a  love  of  freedom 
or  adventure,  or  even  booty,  one  could  not  expect 
Madero  in  each  case  to  ascertain  by  an  examination. 
If  he  had  rejected  them  they  would  have  joined  an 
independent  band,  such  as  the  one  which  worked  in 
Lower  California.  The  aim  of  these  opponents  of  the 
baited  Government  was  to  establish  there  a  socialistic 
State,  and  while  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  Chihua- 
hua and  Oaxaca  and  Tabasco  gave  the  Government 
enough  anxiety,  this  Calif ornian  problem  was  unique. 
So  they  availed  themselves  of  4  El  Imparcial,'  which 
called  the  wrath  of  God  and  man  upon  the  daring 
rascals.  I  do  not  think  that  I  pay  undue  attention  to 
this  paper,  since  there  would  have  been  no  revolution 
if  the  sinister  activities  of  Reyes  Spindola, 1  its  editor, 

1  So  that  he  should  not  be  interfered  with  all  the  paper  which  the 
Press  of  Mexico  required  was  only  to  be  had  from  an  expensive  factory. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


241 


had  been  discouraged.  But  the  cientificos  had  put 
him  there,  had  put  him  more  or  less  at  Don  Porfirio's 
service,  and  had  given  him  carte  blanche  to  try  to  ruin 
everybody  else's  reputation.  Until  he  was  obliged  to 
run  away  from  Mexico  he  wielded  a  pernicious 
influence.  But  on  the  Lower  Calif ornian  business  he 
was  almost  funny,  saying  this  attempt  to  found  a 
socialistic  State  could  not  be  adequately  censured ;  it 
was  horrible,  it  was  immoral.  But  the  movement 
came  to  nothing.  .  .  .  We  have  alluded  to  Americans 
who  at  this  time  were  fighting  for  Madero.  General 
Diaz  remonstrated  through  the  Embassy  in  Washing- 
ton, requesting  also  that  a  keener  watch  be  kept  upon 
the  frontier,  since  the  rebels  were  importing  arms  and 
ammunition  and  supplies.  The  frontier  is  of  an 
enormous  length,  and  the  Americans,  not  aided  over- 
much by  colleagues  opposite,  did  what  they  could. 
But  Don  Porfirio  should  have  remembered  that  it  was 
the  help  of  the  Americans,  against  Sebastian  Lerdo  de 
Tejada,  whereby  he  was  elevated  to  the  Presidential 
chair.  And  when  with  Juarez  he  was  fighting  Maxi- 
milian, 6  we  saw  and  touched  projectiles  of  war  of 
American  manufacture,  marked  U.S.A.,'  says  A.  F. 
Casoni,  who  was  a  captain  in  the  Imperial  army  at 
the  capitulation  of  20th  June,  1867,  and  afterwards 
wrote  '  Le  Drame  Mexicain.'  Madero  had  some  other 
foreigners  among  his  troops — of  course,  a  Garibaldi, 
grandson  of  Giuseppe ;  some  Australians,  they  say ; 

Their  charge  was  18£  cents  per  kilo,  which  was  more  than  double  the 
price  in  England,  and  the  duty  hindered  importation.  As  the  cost  of 
producing  a  book  was  thus  made  most  exorbitant  I  fancied  that 
if  Don  Porfirio  had  heard  of  this  he  would  have  put  an  instant  stop  to 
a  monopoly  which  was  antagonistic  to  the  Progress  that  has  ever  found 
in  him  its  chief  support  (vide  Edicts).  What  was  my  surprise  to  see 
that  Porfirito,  his  son,  is  a  director  of  this  paper  factory  and  he 
himself  a  stockholder.  And  as  such  one  can  onlv  congratulate  him, 
since  it  pays  8  to  10  per  cent  on  over  seven  million  pesos  of  capital. 

R 


242      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


and  Viljoen  the  wily  Boer,  one  of  the  members  of 
a  Boer  colony  which  had  been  set  up  in  Chihuahua 
and,  whatever  be  the  causes,  had  not  nourished  like 
the  similar  endeavours  of  the  Mormon. 

For  a  time  we  have  not  spoken  of  Navarro.  It  was 
better,  for  he  has  been  occupied  in  bayoneting 
wounded  insurrectos.  Even  in  this  lurid  book  I 
cannot  reproduce  the  photograph  I  saw  when  in 
Chihuahua.  But  it  left  no  doubt,  because  the  bayonet 
could  not  have  entered  so  unless  the  victim  had  been 
lying  down.  And  then  Navarro  left  all  else  and 
marched  due  north  to  save  Ciudad  Juarez,  which 
Orozco  was  besieging.  All  the  bridges  on  the  railway 
line  between  Chihuahua  and  Juarez  were  destroyed, 
and  as  Navarro  went  with  infinite  precautions  it  was 
thought  that  he  would  not  relieve  the  place.  Orozco 
found  himself  unable,  having  poor  artillery,  to  seize 
this  celebrated  little  town,  and  he  retired.  Our  old 
friend  General  Luque  could  not  be  dislodged  from 
Ojinaga,  which  is  a  small  town  in  Chihuahua's 
wilderness.  He  had  no  opportunities  to  bayonet  the 
wounded,  since  he  could  not  venture  from  the  town, 
his  forces  adding  up  to  ninety-eight.  There  had 
arrived  with  him  the  remnant  of  a  full  battalion 
of  600  ;  such  as  could  escape  had  joined  the  rebels. 
Luque  knew  that  they  would  not  dislodge  him,  for 
he  made  the  women  and  the  children  walk  about  the 
plaza  and  the  streets  and  so  there  could  be  no  bom- 
bardment. 

In  February  it  was  clear  to  Don  Porfirio  that  some- 
thing must  be  done  ;   so  General  Mucio  Martinez,1 

1  The  inhabitants  of  Puebla  City  flew  to  put  their  shutters  up  and 
flew  to  arms  one  February  afternoon  because  a  shot  was  fired  by  a 
policeman  at  a  mad  dog.  Mucio  Martinez  had  incensed  the  people 
so  profoundly  that  an  outbreak  was  expected  every  moment.    In  his 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


243 


Governor  and  scourge  of  Puebla  during  twenty  years, 
got  ill.  He  struggled  hard  against  it,  taking  train  on 
two  occasions  for  the  capital,  where  he  consulted  with 
the  President  most  anxiously,  because  he  had  not 
yet  done  all  that  he  could  do  in  Puebla.  But  the 
President  informed  him  that  he  had  done  quite  enough, 
and  that  he  should  resign  himself  to  sickness.  Other 
functionaries  would  be  failing  soon ;  a  veritable 
plague  was  looming  over  them.  Whereat  Don  Mucio 
cursed  roundly. 

4  Mucotito  !  '  quoth  the  President,  6  if  you  knew  all 
that  I  know  ' 

4  Shoot  the  devils  ! ' 

6  It  has  gone  too  far.  In  fact  we  may  be  shot 
ourselves.    The  soldiers  ' 

1  Oh,  you  talk  as  if  the  Federals  were  like  the  dirty 
troops  of  Puebla  State.  It  isn't  over  all  the  army 
that  you  have  to  keep  a  guard  of  Zacapoaztla  Indians. 
By  the  way,  we  have  them  now  in  Puebla  at  the 
barracks  and  the  prison  and  in  other  places  ;  and  I 
must  confess  I  like  to  see  those  fellows  with  their 
scarlet  blankets.' 

6  What !    Perhaps  you  do  not  know  that  we  have 

amorous  affairs  he  was  a  grisly  satyr,  using  Pita  the  jefe  politico  as 
his  confederate.  He  was  the  real  owner  of  the  twelve  or  fourteen 
gaming-houses  which  the  law  prohibited  entirely  and  in  which  a 
country  farmer  would  be  drugged  and  robbed.  He  ruined  countless 
people  through  his  machinations  with  the  Pulque  Trust  and  always, 
always  he  preserved  the  favour  of  the  President — it  is  said  for  an 
annual  consideration  of  between  30,000  and  50,000  pesos  (after  the 
seducing  of  the  German  Consul's  daughters).  Finally,  it  was 
apparent  that  he  could  no  longer  be  sustained.  In  '  El  Pais '  a  couple 
of  instructive  articles  were  printed  :  '  El  Canto  del  Cisne  ' — the  Swan 
Song.  Let  us  merely  note  that  to  provide  the  funds  for  paying 
interest  on  the  enormously  increasing  debt,  it  was  not  pulque  which 
was  made  to  pay,  but  water !  Could  a  sacrilegious  hand  be  laid  on 
pulque  or  on  meat  or  any  other  article  whereof  Don  Mucio  and  his 
friends  had  the  monopoly?  But  now  I  understand  that  nearly  all 
the  fine  possessions  of  Don  Mucio,  for  which  he  could  not  show  a 
title,  have  been  passing  into  other  hands. 


244      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


had  our  troubles  with  the  officers  ;  yes  !  the  officers 
of  the  regular  army.' 

4  Shoot  them  !  Have  them  tried  at  night  and  shot 
at  daybreak.   But  I  surely  needn't  tell  you  this  ?  ' 

The  Presidential  face  remained  immovable,  save 
that  his  eyelids  slowly  fell.  '  And  they  are  usually 
very  young,'  he  said.  '  Who  knows  ?   Who  knows  ?  ' 

'  Man  !  you  should  have  more  faith  in  your  old 
comrades.' 

'  Young  ...  so  young.'  The  blue  eyes  of  the 
President  were  full  of  tears,  as  when  he  wept  at  his 
defeat  upon  the  plain  of  Icamole.  '  But  it  was  of 
you,  my  friend,  that  we  were  talking.  Go  back  now 
to  Puebla  and  have  your  secretary  to  compose  the 
proclamation.' 

4  Carajo  !  but  I  am  not  ill.' 

'  Then  someone  of  your  family  is  ill  and  you  must 
go  with  her  to  Germany  or  France.' 

'  And  I  can't  appoint  an  acting  Governor  ?  Don't 
you  think  that  in  a  few  months  ?  ' 

The  General  stamped  his  foot  impatiently,  and  in 
the  proclamation  Mucio  announced  that  he  must  go  to 
Europe.  What  he  did  was  to  deprive  himself  of  his 
moustache  and,  thus  disguised,  continue  in  the  town 
of  Puebla,  which  is  called  the  City  of  the  Angels. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  The  President 
recognised  that  he  was  now  on  the  defensive. 
And  the  rebels  naturally  were  encouraged.  Colonel 
Ahumada,  who  had  ruled  Jalisco  with  intelligence, 
became  the  Governor  of  Chihuahua.  But  the  gleams 
of  sunlight  for  the  Federals  were  very  fitful,  almost 
like  the  visits  of  the  President  to  gay  Guadalajara, 
the  capital  of  Mexico's  chief  state,  Jalisco,  whither  he 
has  been  but  once  in  all  the  years  that  have  elapsed 
since  he  had  General  Corona  murdered.    Now  the 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


245 


Federals  had  given  up  as  hopeless  the  repairing  of  the 
railroad  from  Chihuahua  City  to  Juarez  and  the  rebels 
notified  that  elsewhere  any  train  with  soldiers  would 
be  fired  on.  This  was  not  an  idle  threat,  and  after- 
wards, long  afterwards,  the  Government  had  the 
brutality  to  send  their  soldiers  by  the  common  trains 
and  sometimes  with  a  load  of  dynamite.  What  can 
you  do  with  such  a  Government  but  blow  it  up  ? 

On  6th  March  at  Washington  the  War  Department 
(as  in  June,  1908,  September,  1908,  and  July,  1909) 
issued  mobilising  orders  ;  on  the  16th  it  was  said  that 
20,000  were  in  camp  at  San  Antonio,  Texas.  I  was 
told  by  competent  authorities  at  San  Antonio  that  it 
was  rather  more  than  half  this  number1 — let  it  pass. 
The  Mexicans  do  much  the  same  ;  for  now  the  stand- 
ing army  has  been  found  to  be  much  smaller  than  on 
paper — one  of  the  most  extraordinary  features  of  the 
fall  of  Diaz  was  that  on  his  arrival  in  Spain  he  said  he 
had  been  under  the  impression  that  his  army  consisted 
of  28,000  men,  whereas  it  was  precisely  half  as  numer- 
ous— while  it  is  a  fact  that  General  Torres, 2  fighting 
Yaquis  in  Sonora,  telegraphed  down  to  the  capital 
for  such  and  such  supplies.  They  could  not  well  be 
sent  from  Mexico — not  alone  because  communications 
were  so  bad — and  therefore  money  was  dispatched, 
so  that  the  soldiers  should  be  properly  equipped,  and 
Torres  with  that  money  could  have  given  them  two 

1  The  particularly  well  informed  correspondent  of  the  '  Morning 
Post '  in  Washington,  Mr.  Maurice  Low,  said  in  the  issue  of  May  5th 
that  the  American  army  was  in  no  better  condition  to  undertake  a 
serious  campaign  than  she  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  Spanish  war. 
He  added  that  even  to  secure  the  11,000  men  at  San  Antonio  the 
authorities  had  found  it  necessary  to  include  more  than  1000  raw 
recruits. 

2  When  the  Revolution  was  triumphant,  this  notorious  ex-Governor 
fled  into  the  United  States  and  issued  the  announcement  that  he  did 
not  purpose  to  return  to  Mexico,  '  because,'  he  said,  4 1  have  no  friend 
there.' 


246      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


kits  apiece.  .  .  .  Now  were  these  troops  at  San 
Antonio  to  intervene  ?  Mr.  Wilson,  the  American 
Ambassador  in  Mexico,  was  rather  apprehensive,  but 
his  Government  knew  well  that  even  if  they  should 
assist  some  of  their  countrymen  they  would  endanger 
many  others,  and  the  mob  of  Mexico  would  not  draw 
fine  distinctions  between '  los  Yanquis,'  as  they  call  them, 
and  the  English  and  the  Germans  and  the  French.  Also, 
there  is  a  strong  feeling  in  America  that  Mexicans  them- 
selves should  settle  their  disputes  and  that  Americans 
who  live  there  cannot  claim  a  treatment  better  than 
is  given  to  the  natives.  Both  the  Federals  and  Insur- 
rectos  had  displayed  consideration  for  the  foreigner, 
and  he,  for  his  part,  if  he  had  a  stake  in  Mexico  was 
usually  on  the  side  of  Diaz.  He  remembered  the 
concessions  which  he  had  received,  the  bribing  was 
so  common  that  it  was  accepted  like  the  sunlight,  and 
forgotten.  They  had  grown  accustomed  to  the 
system,  and  Madero  certainly  had  paralysed  all 
business.  Don  Porfirio  requested  that  the  troops 
should  be  withdrawn  and  he  was  answered  that  they 
had  come  down  to  execute  4  maneuvers.'  It  was 
well  to  choose  a  district  every  year  which  had  not 
previously  been  utilised ;  and  if  they  were  more 
numerous  this  time  than  they  had  ever  been,  was 
that  not  natural  in  the  United  States  ?  The  general 
opinion  there  was  hostile  to  an  expedition,  which 
they  also  knew  would  be  no  promenade.  Why  had 
the  troops  been  sent  ?  Did  General  Diaz  ask  for 
them  ?  He  had  a  precedent,  since  Sefior  Izabal,1 
when  Governor  of  Sonora,  quelled  an  outbreak  at  the 
mining  camp  of  Cananea  with  the  help  of  military 

1  But  Sefior  Izabal  was  too  eccentric,  possibly,  for  us  to  use  him  as 
an  illustration.  He  was  photographed  at  Hermosillo  with  eleven 
Yaqui  heads  behind  him  in  a  semicircle,  stuck  on  rifles. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


247 


from  the  States.  If  General  Diaz,  feeling  insecure, 
did  not  invite  them,  were  they  really  aimed  against 
the  Japanese  ?  A  story  runs  that  Don  Porfirio  has 
been  perfidious,  has  made  a  treaty  with  Japan  and 
that  the  document  was  photographed  by  somebody 
from  Washington.  This  is  not  probable  :  Japan  has 
naught  to  gain  by  such  a  treaty.  If  she  gets  her 
vessels  into  Magdalena  Bay1  before  the  enemy,  then 
Mexico  can  utter  protests,  but  that  is  all  that  she 
can  do  by  way  of  making  her  neutrality  respected. 
There  is  another  party,  though,  which  may  have 
brought  about  the  sending  of  the  troops,  for  have  the 
cientificos  not  numerous  and  influential  business 
friends  in  the  United  States  ?  And  could  this  not 
be  an  ingenious  attempt  to  stop  the  war  by  thus 
exploiting  the  insurgents'  patriotism  ? 

Madero's  army  was  not  yet  in  a  position  to  attack 
important  towns  ;  they  rode  about  Chihuahua,  taking 
little  places  and  becoming  every  day  more  skilful. 
Had  they  had  the  arms  of  their  opponents  they  would 
not  have  been  so  long  about  this  Revolution.  But  the 
time  was  near  when  they  were  to  receive  a  good 
supply  of  Mausers,  often  with  a  man  attached.  And 
every  day  the  Government  was  losing  in  prestige. 
Not  only  that,  but  foreign  money  would  not  enter 
the  Republic.    And  commercial  life  became  more 

1  After  San  Francisco,  this  is  the  best  harbour  on  the  whole  Pacific 
coast  of  both  Americas.  The  six  years'  lease  by  the  United  States 
came  to  an  end  in  1910  and  has  not  been  renewed.  In  the  event  of 
war  between  Japan  and  the  United  States  its  value  to  either  side 
would  be  inestimable.  Mexico  herself,  if  she  were  not  reminded  by 
these  two  great  Powers  of  the  bay's  existence,  would  have  occupied 
herself  with  it  no  more  than  she  has  done  with  all  the  rest  of  Lower 
California.  '  The  jefe  politico  of  Ensenada,  L.C — said  the  '  Mexican 
Herald'  of  December  16,  1911 — 'has  advised  the  Department  of 
Gobernacion  that  for  lack  of  a  print  shop  the  publication  of  the  official 
paper  has  been  stopped  since  last  March,  but  they  hope  to  resume 
later.' 


248      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


stagnant.  As  to  manufactures,  nothing  seemed  to 
flourish  save  the  powder  factory  which  had  been 
opened  in  September  and  whose  products  were 
considered  bad,  although  the  Army  Secretary,  General 
Gonzalez  Cosio,  told  the  army  more  than  once  that 
they  were  good.1  The  other  implements  of  war 
cannot  be  made  at  home  ;  and  uniforms  are  wanted 
rarely,  as  the  soldiers  strip  their  dead  companions 
and  are  subsequently  stripped  themselves  of  their 
excessive  garments.  .  .  .  Then  it  was  that  Senor 
Limantour  came  over  the  Atlantic.  On  arriving  at 
New  York  he  said  that  all  the  troops  in  Texas  had 
been  sent  there  for  some  exercises,  but  he  did  not 
understand  the  movements  of  the  Yankee  warships 
that  were  cruising  off  the  coast  of  Mexico.  How  can 
these  ships,  he  said,  co-operate  with  the  troops  in  the 
general  manoeuvres  at  so  great  a  distance  from  the 
natural  base  ?  It  was  not  clear  to  him  ;  and  then  he 
made  a  fine  courageous  speech,  wherein  he  said  that 
if  there  should  be  intervention  all  Mexico  would  be 
united  to  hurl  back  the  foe.  This  caused  him  to  be 
popular  in  Mexico.    His  journey,  mile  by  mile,  was 

1  On  the  23rd  of  June,  when  the  war  was  over,  it  transpired  that 
General  Mondragon,  chief  of  artillery  and  furnisher  of  some  of  the 
supplies,  was  inaccessible.  The  Mexicans  are  not  averse  from  spread- 
ing rumours,  and  the  deadly  ones  on  foot  regarding  Mondragon  were 
numerous  as  were  the  bullets  of  the  Civil  War — on  every  one  of  which, 
so  it  was  said,  he  made  a  profit  of  a  cent.  Besides,  they  were,  so 
it  was  said,  of  such  bad  quality  that  more  than  anything  they  caused 
Navarro  to  hand  over  Ciudad  Juarez  to  the  rebels.  Also  the  artillery, 
which  Mondragon  himself  perfected,  is  alleged  to  have  been  rather 
futile  and  the  bills  of  the  contractors  very  swollen.  It  was  always 
isuch  a  goodly  sight,  the  handsome  fellow  with  his  waving,  black 
moustache,  his  endless  decorations  and  the  strut  which  seemed  to  go 
so  well  with  his  heroic  name.  Would  it  be  possible  for  any  Mexican 
again  to  revel  in  the  sight  ?  Or,  in  the  lines  of  Lewis  Carroll  on  the 
father  being  photographed,  shall  we  in  this  uncertain  world  assure 
the  Mexican  of  one  thing  which  is  certain,  namely,  that  he  would 
contemplate  the  distance  with  a  look  of  pensive  meaning  ?  .  .  .  On 
the  formation  of  Huerta's  Cabinet  in  February,  1913,  General  Manuel 
Mondragon  was  made  the  Minister  of  War. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


249 


telegraphed  down  to  the  capital,  and  when  he  got 
there  he  was  splendidly  received  and  for  about — about 
a  week  he  was  quite  popular.  They  spoke  of  him  as  if 
he  was  the  one  man  who  could  patch  things  up, 
although  he  has  said  always  that  he  is  a  mere  financier 
and  no  politician.  But  he  was  a  shrewd  observer, 
said  the  people — and  with  reason.  Had  he  not  laid 
down  a  programme  of  reforms,  such  as  the  sub- 
dividing of  the  large  estates  ?  1  Had  he  not  said  that 
there  was  much  improvement  possible  among  the 

1  The  problems  in  connection  with  the  land  in  Mexico,  the  size  and 
the  legality  of  many  holdings,  call  aloud  for  an  inquiry.  But  one 
ventures  to  suppose  that  many  Mexicans  were  quite  prepared  to  let 
Madero  have  his  chance — the  task  was  hard  enough— and  many  of  the 
working-class  of  Mexico  would,  I  believe,  regret  that  Mr.  Honore  J. 
Jaxon,  of  Chicago,  visited  this  country  and  on  their  behalf  addressed 
the  44th  Annual  Congress  of  the  Trades  Unions  of  Great  Britain.  This 
enthusiastic  French-Canadian — he  took  a  part  in  Riel's  revolution  and 
is  still  an  amiable  firebrand— spoke  with  much  severity  about  Madero 
to  the  Congress,  and  informed  them  that  it  was  impossible  to  stop 
the  firm  determination  of  the  working-class  of  Mexico  to  '  abolish 
private  ownership  of  land  and  of  the  instruments  of  production  and 
exchange.'  I  was  not  present  at  the  reading  of  this  manifesto,  which 
concludes :  '  Fraternally  and  sincerely,  The  Working  Class  of 
Mexico — by  Honors  J.  Jaxon,  Special  Envoy  to  Europe  on  behalf  of 
the  Insurrectos  of  Mexico.'  But  when  I  had  an  opportunity  in 
London,  at  the  end  of  January,  1912,  of  meeting  Mr.  Jaxon  I  did  not 
so  much  deplore  the  sentiments  of  this  great  document ;  how  could 
one  shed  cold  water  on  this  kind  of  thing? — '  As  an  immediate  sequence 
to  the  success  of  this  their  heroic  struggle  for  land  and  liberty  the 
workers  of  the  entire  world  are  freely  invited  to  participate  as  indi- 
viduals in  the  material  benefits  of  this  expected  victory.  But  I  was 
grieved  that  Mr.  Jaxon,  whose  sincerity  I  do  not  doubt,  should  have 
apparently  been  drawn  into  this  matter  by  the  brothers  Flores  Magon, 
the  implacable  foes  of  the  Mexican  President.  Their  journal,  printed 
at  Los  Angeles,  he  calls  in  his  address  '  our  newspaper ' — and  I  believe 
that  if  the  Special  Envoy  had  found  time  to  go  to  Mexico  it  would 
have  been  a  course  to  recommend.  He  talks  of  the  'enlightened 
attitude  of  these  workers  who  in  every  quarter  of  Mexico  are  refusing 
to  give  up  their  weapons  and  are  reoccupying  and  cultivating  their 
lands  without  regard  to  the  parchment  titles  held  by  the  financial 
ring.  The  latter  gentlemen  are  now  busily  engaged  in  bargaining 
for  the  invasive  support  of  their  inequitable  claims  by  the  Govern- 
ments of  Germany  and  France  and  other  foreign  powers.  In  fact> 
it  is  stated  that  nearly  half  a  billion  of  money  is  already  pledged 
for  this  purpose.'  One  is  astonished  that  he  can  refrain  from  being 
in  the  midst  of  such  tremendous  business. 


250      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


jefes  ?  Yes,  in  Paris  he  had  spoken  like  a  lion,  in 
New  York  as  if  he  were  a  lion's  whelp,  in  Texas — 
nearer  to  Porfirio — he  spoke  as  if  he  were  a  man, 
while  in  the  capital  of  Mexico  he  spoke  as  Ministers 
are  wont  to  do.  The  President  made  much  of  him, 
and  with  his  help  did  an  unprecedented  act — re- 
organised the  Cabinet.  Except  for  Limantour  him- 
self and  General  Gonzalez  Cosio,  who  had  had  his 
teeth  drawn  years  ago,  none  of  the  Old  Guard  were 
retained.  A  telegram  was  sent  to  Reyes  bidding  him 
return,  but  he  had  lost  his  glamour.  With  regard  to 
the  new  Ministers,  one  must  recall  that  they  are 
merely  secretaries  of  the  President,  appointed  and  to 
be  dismissed  by  him.  They  are  in  no  way  under 
Parliamentary  control.  Moreover,  in  the  present 
case  they  none  of  them  had  taken  part  in  politics  and 
their  opinions  were  unknown,  save  those  of  Senor  de 
la  Barra.  As  Ambassador  in  Washington  he  had  not 
raised  his  voice  ;  he  merely  made  himself  the  tube 
by  which  the  Government  of  Mexico  discoursed  to 
that  of  the  United  States.  He  celebrated  conferences 
there  with  Dr.  Vazquez  Gomez,  and  returning  to  his 
native  country  brought  the  reputation  of  a  careful, 
cultivated,  unoriginal  official.  The  other  Ministers 
were  worthy  men  :  for  instance,  he  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion, Jorge  Vera  Estanol,  had  worked  himself  from 
indigence  and  absolute  obscurity  to  the  position  of  a 
leading  lawyer.  He  was  educated  by  the  State,  and 
in  return  for  this  he  never  ceased  from  teaching 
at  the  School  of  Jurisprudence,  though,  of  course, 
he  could  have  spent  those  hours  more  lucratively. 
One  portfolio,  which  had  been  held  by  Don  Ramon 
Corral,  was  vacant,  and  Dehesa  travelled  up  to  Mexico. 
For  twenty  years  this  philosophic  statesman  had  been 
ruling  Veracruz.  He  made  a  good  part  of  his  fortune  in 


Between  Veracruz  and  the  Capital. 


See  p.  250 


Dr.  Vazquez  Gomez. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


251 


the  custom-house,  but  honestly,  since  it  was  he  who 
had  the  perquisite  of  taking  a  proportion  of  the  value 
of  the  goods  improperly  declared,  and  it  was  long  before 
the  merchants  could  get  used  to  making  candid  declara- 
tions. Then  Dehesa,  who  reminds  one  (in  appearance) 
of  a  mediaeval  cardinal,  invested  profitably  both  in 
houses  and  Murillos.  He  was  much  admired,  and 
when  he  took  the  road  to  Mexico  the  country  said  that 
they  would  have  an  excellent  new  Minister  of  Gober- 
nacion,  which  has  no  exact  equivalent  with  us  :  he  is 
the  link  between  the  State  Governors  and  the  Federal 
Government,  he  has  authority  over  the  Federal 
District  and  the  various  territories  ;  perhaps  one 
might  call  the  post  a  glorified  Ministry  of  the  Interior. 
Dehesa  was  a  strong  man — he  received  the  Yucatecan 
exiles  and  rewarded  them  with  good  official  posts  ; 
he  is  a  meditative  man  who  can  be  roused  to  passion  if 
you  speak  to  him  about  the  cientificos.  His  animosity 
against  their  chief,  Don  Jose  Limantour,  has  been 
notorious  ;  he  thinks,  moreover,  that  he  could  make 
just  as  shrewd  a  Minister  of  Finance.  Well,  maybe 
it  was  Limantour  who  sent  him  back  to  govern  Vera- 
cruz, for  Limantour  could  threaten  that  he  would 
resign,  and  he  possessed  the  confidence  of  Europe. 
But  Dehesa  may  have  seen  that  this  new  Cabinet 
would  not  live  long,  and  Don  Porfirio  most  probably 
obtained  from  him  the  perspicacious  notion  to  win 
over  Dr.  Vazquez  Gomez  with  this  bait.  And  so  the 
Ministry  of  Gobernacion  stayed  unoccupied.  How- 
ever, it  was  not  for  one  portfolio  that  the  insurgents 
had  been  fighting.  And  at  last  the  admirable  Indian, 
Vera  Estanol,  took  this  post  also. 

On  the  1st  April  Congress  reassembled,  and  the 
President,  amid  the  deepest  expectation,  read  his 
message.    He  was  all  in  favour  of  the  principle  of  non- 


252      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


re-election  as  well  as  of  the  other  requirements,  so 
far  as  they  were  known,  of  the  rebels.  He  rebuked 
them,  of  course,  for  having  taken  arms  against  a 
President  [he  had  risen  against  two],  but  he  appeared 
to  be  inclined  to  give  them  60  cents  for  every  50  they 
demanded.  By  this  time  the  popularity  of  Limantour 
had  waned  from  its  abnormal  height.  They  look  at 
him  askance  in  Mexico  because  of  two  things  :  on  the 
one  hand,  he  is  punctual,  accurate  and  energetic  ; 
on  the  other  hand,  to  put  the  matter  with  a  due 
regard  to  the  conventions,  he  has  not  grown  any 
poorer  on  account  of  his  official  post.  All  eyes  were 
turned  on  Don  Porfirio.   Would  it  be  peace  or  war  ? 

The  next  few  days  saw  the  beginning  of  a  Parlia- 
ment in  Mexico.  Theoretically  there  had  been  one  for 
these  many  years,  but  nobody  had  noticed  it.  The 
members,  nominated  by  the  President  or  chosen  under 
his  auspices,  had  done  no  more  than  stand  up,  every 
now  and  then,  to  wave  their  hands — which  is  the  way 
in  which  they  vote.  Apparently  the  subjects  that 
engrossed  them  always  were  the  minutes  of  the  last 
meeting  and  a  quiet  ruminating  as  to  whether  this  or 
that  Republican  should  be  allowed  to  waive  his  natural 
antipathy  of  orders,  ribbons,  stars  and  so  forth,  in 
consideration  of  the  merits  which  the  Chinese  Emperor 
had  somehow  seen  in  him.  But  now  they  suddenly 
began  to  legislate,  and  on  the  largest  questions,  while 
the  public  swarmed  to  listen.  There  is  room  for 
several  thousand,  since  the  House  is  built  in  what  was 
once  a  theatre  and  the  construction  has  not  varied. 
Stalls  and  stage  are  occupied  Jby  deputies,  all  the 
remaining  parts  by  audience.  On  the  1st  April 
cavalry  and  a  battalion  of  detectives  were  employed 
without  the  Chamber  and  within,  but  for  the  ordinary 
sittings  they  dispensed  with  cavalry,  and  the  detectives 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


253 


are  discreet.  But  most  discreet  of  all  is  an  attendant 
who  brings  water  to  the  deputies  ;  he  puts  a  glass 
beside  the  speaker,  who  has  soared  excessively  into 
the  sky ;  the  speaker  gazes  at  it  and  descends  to  earth. 
They  talk  of  re-election  and  Porfirio.  One  gasps  to 
hear  the  kind  of  things  they  say.  Will  not  the 
President  chop  off  their  heads  to-morrow  ?  But  the 
public  yell  with  joy.  When,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
deputy  who  is  suspected  of  a  leaning  towards  the 
President  desires  to  speak,  they  hiss  him  as  he  rises 
from  his  desk  and  as  he  walks  in  the  direction  of  the 
tribune.  When  he  speaks,  with  sarcasm,  a  member 
of  the  audience  shouts,  '  Fuera!  '  ['Out  with  him  ! '] ; 
the  cry  is  taken  up,  6  Oh  !  Fuera  !  Fuera  !  9  but  the 
deputy  who  is  presiding  issues  no  commands.  A 
youthful  law-maker,  who  speaks  like  Romeo  at  the 
break  of  day,  is  cheered  deliriously  when  he  urges  that 
non-re-election  should  become  the  rule  for  deputies. 
4  The  people,'  he  exclaims,  '  do  not  love  us  for  ever  !  ' 
He  would  have  the  judges  relatively  permanent,  but 
no  Governor  should  be  succeeded  by  a  relative — no ! 
not  unto  the  fourth  degree  of  consanguinity.  The 
next  gentleman  I  could  not  hear  because  a  most 
vigorous  debate  was  being  conducted  in  the  Press 
gallery.  However,  he  may  not  have  been  worth 
hearing.  From  another  gallery  a  clarion  voice  sang 
out, '  We  are  losing  our  time  !  '  And  the  next  speaker, 
one  Lozano,  a  pugnacious  person  and  a  follower  of  Don 
Ramon  Corral,  was  forced  to  shout  like  any  sailor  in  a 
storm.  He  said  Madero  was  unpatriotic,  and  when 
this  was  loudly  questioned  he  replied  that  he  would 
meet  his  interrupters  afterwards,  outside  the  House. 
But  Lozano  was  unreasonable.  4  Tell  me,  is  it  so  ?  ' 
he  asked,  4  Yes  or  no  ?  '  4  No  !  '  shouted  someone. 
4  You  are  drunk  ! '  screamed  back  Lozano.  The 


254      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


alluring  subject  brought  at  least  two  orators  into  the 
fray  :  Diodoro  Batalla  of  Veracruz  and  Francisco 
Bulnes,  the  historian.  Here  we  can  ask  again — was 
it  going  to  be  war  or  peace  ?  Not  war,  as  Don  Porfirio 
was  beaten.  Hitherto  the  deputies  unfavourable 
to  the  President  had  been  a  little  crude,  but  these 
two  men  spoke,  in  their  different  ways,  for  what  is 
best  in  Mexico.  '  All  those  who  have  reached  office 
here,'  Batalla  said, 4  have  clung  to  it.  Santa- Anna  was 
continually  making  trips  abroad  and  apocryphal 
visits  to  the  corners  of  the  earth,  but  he  returned 
precisely  after  the  completion  of  the  period  of  the 
acting  President  and  he  resumed  supreme  command. 
The  figure  crowned  with  a  halo  of  glory,  the  most 
exalted  figure  in  our  history,  Benito  Juarez,  lost  at  his 
last  re-election  a  portion  of  his  hold  on  the  people 
through  his  wish  to  continue  in  power.  Lerdo  greatly 
risked  his  popularity,  weakened  his  prestige  and 
cooled  the  love  of  his  fellow-citizens  when  he  accom- 
plished, against  wind  and  tide,  his  re-election.'  Then 
Don  Diodoro  declared  that  with  the  country  a  mixture 
of  illiterates  [30  or  40  per  cent]  and  a  great  mass  of 
egotisms,  with  no  adequate  number  of  citizens  to 
march  as  vanguard  of  the  laws — even  Tolstoi  would 
have  tried  to  be  re-elected.  '  Some  say  that  laws  are 
neither  good  nor  bad,  but  depend  on  the  people 
behind  them  to  defend  them.  If  we  are  going  to  wait 
for  good  laws  until  we  have  made  good  citizens  with 
bad  laws  we  will  never  arrive  at  the  desired  point.  .  .  . 
Let  us  pass  laws  for  education,  let  us  not  delay  their 
passage  till  all  Mexicans  are  educated.'  He  held  up 
to  scorn  the  flatterers  of  Don  Porfirio.  '  Upon  their 
heads,'  he  cried,  '  be  the  blood  of  Chihuahua  !  '  His 
denunciations  and  his  raillery  and  his  amusing 
gestures  make  of  him  an  idol.    Not  while  he  speaks 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


255 


does  the  audience  exclaim,  as  to  another  deputy, 
4  Talk  with  more  reason  !  '  Don  Diodoro — whose 
bedroom1  is  the  crowded  scene  of  great  political 
activity  while  he  rolls  to  and  fro  in  bed  till  it  is  time 
for  lunch — Don  Diodoro  can  please  himself.  He  can 
even  be  malicious  with  regard  to  Bulnes,  the  admired 
historian  who  sits  for  Lower  California  and  probably 
has  never  been  to  that  abandoned,  inaccessible 
domain.  Then  Bulnes,  with  a  learned  discourse, 
answers  him.  The  public  is  not  so  delighted  with  his 
exposition  of  democracy,  for  he  is  too  profound  and 
too  allusive.  But  his  wisdom,  aided  with  the  tricks 
of  oratory,  gradually  conquers  them.  He  paints  the 
desperate  condition  of  the  country  during  seventy 
years  of  independence  and  the  means  whereby  the 
President  and  his  advisers  brought  about,  from  1880 
onwards,  a  more  placid  state.  His  picture  of  the  Peace 
of  Diaz,  that  has  been  so  much  extolled  from  hemi- 
sphere to  hemisphere,  is  hardly  calculated  to  appeal  to 
foreigners,  those  foreigners  whose  interest  in  the 
advancement  of  the  Mexican  has  not  been  equal  to 
their  vested  interest.  And  when  this  famous  peace 
was  being  broken  it  was  natural  that  they  should  echo 
the  emphatic  hope  of  Lord  Cowdray  that  Madero 
would  be  seized  and  shot.  4  Never,  never  had  there 
been  a  work,'  said  Bulnes,  4  so  sincerely  patriotic  and 
so  cleverly  concocted  to  prevent  us  being  traversed  by 
a  single  wave  of  that  old  bellicose,  light-hearted 
nightmare.  They  wanted  Mexico  to  play  the  most 
bucolic  of  the  symphonies,  producing  notes  that 
should  be  a  mere  tumult  of  the  meat  and  bone.'  The 
articles  of  4  El  Imparcial '  were  sedative  :  (a)  4  What 
is  the  influence  of  cold  upon  the  Russian  character  ?  ' 
(b)  4  Investigations  as  to  the  industrial  activity  of 

1  I  grieve  to  say  that  he  died  suddenly  on  June  3rd,  1911. 


256      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


ant-hills.'  (c)  '  Progress  of  the  botanic  science  in 
Manchuria.'  .  .  .  Down  upon  the  dreamy,  romantic, 
tremulous,  audacious  spirit  of  youth  was  turned  a 
shower-bath  of  statistics,  physical  statistics,  com- 
mercial statistics,  criminal  and  matrimonial  statistics  ; 
a  literature  of  numbers,  the  formidable  eloquence  of 
the  treasury  reserve  ;  a  theatre  without  buskins,  a 
honeyed  history  without  criticism,  a  science  without 
daring.  .  .  .  And  public  opinion  applauded  enthusi- 
astically, with  immense  sincerity,  a  spectacle  which 
it  had  never  seen  nor  dreamed  of  seeing,  namely,  a  sky 
without  clouds  ;  but  it  is  such  a  sky  that  freezes  up 
your  harvest ;  .  .  .  and  applauded  most  particularly 
when  they  found  themselves  in  vessels  ornamented 
with  rich  garlands,  gliding  on  a  waveless  sea  ;  but  as 
there  existed  no  free  Press  the  lighthouses  were  all  ex- 
tinguished. Then  the  hurricane  was  feared  no  longer, 
since  the  atmosphere  had  been  made  thermally  uni- 
form ;  but  let  them  not  forget  the  dreadful  quiet  of  the 
reef.  .  .  .  4  We  took,'  said  he,  4 no  thought  of  the  people, 
on  whose  head  the  bureaucrats  were  dancing  ;  finally 
we  thought  there  was  no  people,  until  they  rose  in 
resentment,  dazzled  by  a  light  of  gold  and  grandeur 
which  was  cast  upon  them  by  the  ruling  classes  and 
was  not  the  sun's  light.'  .  .  .  The  orator  reminded  them 
that  on  21st  June,  1903,  he  had  said  in  the  Liberal 
Convention  that  if  Mexicanism  be  contrary  to 
Porfirism  he  voted  for  the  Fatherland.  4  And  not  one 
of  you  who  are  listening  to  me,  not  one  of  you  deputies 
would  be  here,'  said  Bulnes,  '  if  he  had  avowed 
himself  as  anything  but  a  Porfirista.'  He  reminded 
them  that  General  Diaz  had  his  merits  and  that  in  this 
hour  when  the  dictatorship  was  passing  they  did  not 
do  well  to  fling  contempt  and  nothing  but  contempt 
upon  him.    '  It  is  true  he  has  committed  errors  and, 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


257 


I  grant,  all  sorts  of  crimes  against  our  democracy  ; 
but  it  is  also  true  that  this  democracy  so  foully  treated, 
was  one  that  could  not  live,  for  we  have  never  been 
able  to  be  democrats,  and  no  tribunal  has  punished  or 
can  punish  those  who  violate  and  who  demolish 
phantoms.'  With  regard  to  Don  Porfirio's  merits, 
4  you  cannot  demand,'  he  said,  4  that  a  personal 
Government  should  have  two  independent  Chambers, 
Sovereign  States  in  the  Federation,  a  Press  so  free  as 
to  build  up  among  the  people  an  acquaintance  with 
the  whole  depravity  of  anarchism,  professors  who 
officially  may  damn  the  Government,  immaculate 
tribunals  that  will  put  a  stop  to  all  injustice.  The 
function  of  a  dictatorship  is  to  give  peace  and  wealth, 
to  give  protection  to  science,  art  and  literature,  to 
give  the  time  wherein  the  people  of  itself  can,  slowly 
or  swiftly,  create  the  foundations  of  its  freedom  ;  and 
this  has  been  done  by  General  Diaz  in  a  way  that  few 
could  imitate.  .  .  .  The  great  mistake  was  when  we 
emerged  from  the  infernal  chaos  of  the  demagogues 
to  enter  into  the  chaos  of  silence,  the  chaos  of  the 
social  formula,  the  chaos  of  a  peace  which  smothered 
our  insensate  dogmas,  our  romantic  follies  and  our 
mighty  talk,  our  turbulence  that  was  so  ruinous,  our 
wretched  quarrels,  but  also  at  the  same  time  our  old, 
easy  licence  which  in  many  ways  resembled  freedom. 
There  lay  the  great  error,  in  having  overlooked  the 
people's  rights  through  being  taken  up  in  a  magnifi- 
cent and  brilliant  work,  whose  object  was  to  sacrifice 
all  things  and  souls  unto  material  improvements  ;  so 
that  there  should  be  but  one  sensation — that  of  the 
gasoline  penetrating  into  the  motor's  cylinders  ;  but 
one  sole  thought,  the  moral  and  the  intellectual 
abdication  of  the  race  ;  but  one  phenomenon,  the  rise 
of  a  plutocracy.  And  this  great  error,'  said  he, '  causes 
s 


258      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


us  to  stand  here  naked  like  a  bacchanalian  woman  ; 
it  is  certain  that  the  peace  has  been  assisted  by  the 
railways,  telegraphs  and  port  works,  telephones  and 
aeroplanes,  and  what  you  will ;  but  these  benefits 
are  different  portions  of  the  structure  which  as  it 
becomes  more  vast  requires  cement  more  strong, 
and  the  appropriate  cement  was  in  the  definition  of 
Benito  Juarez  :  "  Peace  is  the  regard  for  others' 
rights."  That  is  to  say,  peace  is  justice ;  this  was 
the  cement  and  we  did  not  remember  it ;  here  is  the 
secret  why  the  whole  work  seems  to  be  upon  the  eve 
of  toppling  over.'  He  concluded  with  this  sentence  : 
'  Gentlemen,  I  have  great  hopes  that  when  these 
various  reforms  held  out  to  us  are  realised,  the  people 
will  profit  by  them.  Should  it  not  be  so,  the  people 
would  be  lost ;  for  they  would  go  on  giving  their 
adherence  to  the  cursed  law  of  the  Latin- Americans  : 
To  destroy  when  you  are  weary  of  obeying  and  obey 
when  you  are  weary  of  destroying.'1 

Don  Porfirio,  as  we  have  shown,  had  not  been 
helped  by  the  behaviour  of  the  small  officials  when 
the  Revolution  was  more  critical.  Now,  when  he 
stood  a  beaten  man,  all  his  concessions  and  his  army 
impotent  to  stop  the  tide,  one  looked  in  vain  for  his 
great  friends — the  '  Society  of  Friends  of  General  Diaz.' 
They  were  very  quiet.  As  they  thought  about  the 
nasty  situation  it  occurred  to  one  of  them  that  they 
were  not  political  but  merely  private  friends.  'Tis 
true  that  they  had  urged  him  to  continue  in  his  office, 

1  So  much  for  the  apologists  of  General  Diaz  who  have  sought  to 
justify  his  tyranny  by  sneering  at  the  Chamber.  *  Mexicans,'  they 
say,  '  are  quite  incapable  of  legislating ' :  just  as  if  the  ludicrous — 
which  I  have  not  in  this  account  by  any  means  slurred  over— were 
eschewed  by  legislative  bodies.  And  the  journalists  and  deputies  of 
Mexico  would  find  it  hard  to  be  so  little  Latin-American,  so  little 
human,  as  to  rise  from  thirty  years  of  stern  repression  and  refrain 
from  being  somewhat  irrepressible. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


259 


and  it  was  a  thousand  pities  they  had  stepped  on 
to  the  field  of  politics.  A  thousand  pities — they 
would  never  go  beyond  their  sphere  again.  Of  course, 
if  Diaz  in  his  private  life  had  need  of  friends  they 
would  immediately  present  themselves  ;  but  he  had 
not  been  murdered  yet.  The  shameful  President  of 
this  Society,  Don  Guillermo  de  Landa  y  Escandon, 
was  glad  to  think  that  as  the  Governor  of  the  Federal 
District  he  had  raised  around  himself  a  wall  of 
popularity.  The  large  amounts  which  he  had  given 
to  the  poor,  those  plans  which  he  had  propagated  for 
amelioration  of  the  workman's  lot — would  they  not 
tell  ?  He  had  been  virtuous,  not  joining  in  the 
pulque  trust  because  he  was  the  Governor.  Well, 
he  made  more  money  from  outside  the  trust ;  that  was 
an  accident.  And  if  he  sold  this  poison  to  the  poor, 
did  not  the  others  sell  it  ?  And  if  as  Governor  he 
benefited  certain  companies  which  gave  him  wealth, 
did  others  act  in  other  ways  ?  No  ;  he  was  popular, 
and  popular  he  would  remain.  And  Governor  he 
would  remain.  Poor,  strutting  Don  Guillermo  really 
does  believe  that  he  means  well. 

By  this  time  it  was  not  the  President  but  Limantour 
who  was  in  supreme  command.  This  Revolution 
had  astonished  Diaz  so  completely,  had  bewildered 
him,  had  left  him  dazed.  The  programme  he  had 
cherished  in  September  was  to  be  the  President  of 
Mexico  for  ever  and  for  ever.  People  might  say  that  he 
lusted  after  power,  but  they  had  spoken  evil  things  of 
Miguel  Hidalgo  whom  they  now  were  celebrating  with 
such  fervour.  In  a  hundred  years,  if  by  that  time  he 
were  dead,  the  many  books  which  vowed  that  he  was 
great  would  surely  win  the  day  against  those  few 
perverted  books.  So  in  September  he  was  well  at  ease 
and  Don  Ramon  Corral  was  at  his  side.    Perhaps  it 


260      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


was  unwise  to  leave  the  world,  unpatriotic  to  leave 
Mexico  in  such  uncertainty  regarding  the  succession, 
for  he  surely  would  survive  that  dissipated  fellow. 
Should  he  take  unto  himself  a  young  and  vigorous 
Vice-President  who  would  attract  the  country  ? 
What  !  there  might  even  be  some  resignations  from 
the  '  Society  of  Friends  of  General  Diaz.'  .  .  . 

In  December,  eleven  days  after  he  and  Corral  took 
the  oath,  he  was  consulting  with  a  merchant  as  to 
how  the  people  could  be  brought  back  to  their  old 
docility.  This  merchant,  a  Tabascan,  told  him  that 
with  such  and  such  reforms  it  would  be  possible,  he 
thought,  to  blunt  their  anger  if  it  was  too  late  to  win 
their  love.  Tabasco  and  Chiapas  had  been  smoulder- 
ing, he  told  the  President,  for  many  years  :  in  both 
of  them  a  great  deal  has  been  done  by  Nature  and  a 
great  deal  of  iniquity  by  man.  So  Don  Porfirio 
requested  him  to  make  a  memorandum  of  the 
remedies,  however  drastic,  which  he  thought  were 
wanted.  And  in  due  course  it  was  written  and  a 
copy  sent  to  Limantour  in  Paris  ;  when  this  Minister 
returned  to  Mexico  he  met  the  merchant  and,  not 
knowing  how  the  memorandum  had  been  instigated, 
he  remarked  that  the  propounding  of  such  plans 
made  him  quite  eligible  for  Belem.  And  by  the  time 
when  Limantour  came  back  the  harried  President  was 
in  a  whirlpool  of  conflicting  memoranda,  being  pulled 
to  this  side  and  to  that,  and  with  no  prospect  that  he 
would  emerge  into  the  quiet  water.  He  would  never 
see  again,  so  much  he  knew,  that  method  of  paternal 
Government.  This  changing  Mexico  would  never 
tolerate  a  repetition  of  the  tactics  of  the  railway 
merger  when  it  was  arranged  by  him  and  Limantour 
and  others,  the  country  only  hearing  of  it  afterwards 
— to  some  extent.   Nor  would  it  now  be  possible  for 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


261 


him  and  Limantour  to  let  the  country  learn  by 
telegram  from  London  that  one  half  the  debt  had  been 
converted — if,  indeed,  it  ever  was ;  yes,  if,  indeed,  it 
ever  was  on  those  conditions.  All  was  changing,  and 
the  changes  that  he  made  on  his  part  did  not  stop 
the  runaway  chariot,  simply  brought  him  near  enough 
to  swallow  up  the  dust.  He  was  bewildered,  baffled, 
and  he  threw  himself  into  the  arms  of  the  sagacious 
Limantour. 

Meanwhile  the  fighting  still  continued.  Luis  Moya, 
the  large,  bearded  farmer  who  was  subsequently  slain 
upon  the  field  of  battle  near  a  village  in  which  his 
betrothed,  a  schoolmistress,  was  living,  had  the 
revolutionary  forces  of  Durango  and  of  Zacatecas. 
Many  tales  are  told  of  this  heroic,  simple  man  ;  one 
evening  he  left  his  thousand  followers  and  in  a  motor 
came  to  Torreon,  the  seat  of  many  industries,  where 
Chinamen  particularly  thrive.  He  left  his  motor  in 
the  suburbs,  took  a  cab  and  drove  about  the  place,  to 
study  where  it  might  most  easily  be  captured.  Then, 
although  his  photograph  had  been  in  all  the  papers, 
he  beguiled  an  hour  or  so  at  a  saloon,  and,  wishing 
always  to  improve  his  stock  of  information,  visited  a 
cinematograph.  At  Agua  Prieta,  on  the  northern 
frontier,  and  at  Cuernavaca,  the  umbrageous  haunt  of 
tourists,  in  Morelos,  and  throughout  Guerrero,  the 
wild  mountain-state,  resounded  cries  of  death  and 
panic.  In  Guerrero  it  was  Don  Ambrosio  Figueroa 
and  his  stalwart  brothers  with  La  Neri,  a  most 
vehement  young  Joan  of  Arc,  who  marched  to  victory. 
They  took  the  capital,  that  Montenegrin  sort  of  place, 
poor  Chilpancingo,  and  the  Governor,  Don  Damian 
Flores,  made  his  exit  in  a  packing-case.  It  had  been 
the  ambition  of  this  really  honourable  man  to  build  a 
a  road  to  Acapulco,  and  he  realised,  he  told  me,  how 


262      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


the  State  was  backward.  But  in  his  too-short  adminis- 
tration he  had  made  small  headway ;  there  was 
general  discontent,  and  the  authorities  did  not 
resemble  Flores  half  as  much  as  they  resembled  the 
white-haired  commandant  at  Iguala,  who  displayed 
a  flag  of  truce — displayed  it  from  the  church's  tower, 
and  when  Don  Ambrosio  Figueroa  came  unarmed 
across  the  plaza  with  some  five  or  six  companions  to 
confer  with  him,  a  volley  rattled  from  the  church  and 
nearly  all  of  them  were  shot.  This  ancient  sinner, 
in  an  hour  or  two,  was  duly  executed  ;  as  for  Flores, 
who  had  been  a  schoolmaster  in  Mexico,  the  capital, 
and  was  at  all  events  an  earnest  man,  I  hope  that  in 
his  packing-case  he  was  not  shipwrecked,  as  were  we, 
on  our  return  across  the  broad  and  raging  Balsas. 
It  was  as  the  Liberating  Army  of  the  south  that  Don 
Ambrosio' s  insurgents  swept  from  the  Pacific,  from 
the  mountains.  .  .  .  On  the  Arizona  frontier,  oppo- 
site the  town  of  Douglas,  there  was  much  manoeuv- 
ring, for  the  rebels  wanted  to  compel  the  garrison  of 
Agua  Prieta  to  fire  over  into  Douglas,  which  they  did, 
to  the  undoing  of  American  spectators.  This  small 
town  capitulated,  and  Porfirio  Diaz,  who  was  always 
wont  to  pay  the  soldiers  regularly  so  that  they  would 
still  be  faithful — '  What  had  I  done,'  he  said  once  at 
Chapultepec  in  answer  to  a  toast,  1  what  had  I  done 
to  obtain  this  generous  and  self-denying  sacrifice, 
that  voluptuous  sacrifice,  to  shed  their  blood  for  my 
blood  ?  ' — Don  Porfirio  thought  it  was  opportune  to 
give  the  soldiers  now  one  peso  daily.  That  is  what 
he  advertised,  but  whether  they  received  it  is  another 
matter,  for  the  Serjeants  take  advantage  of  the  gam- 
bling habits  of  their  men,  and  as  they  make  advances 
always  calculate  so  much  commission.  It  is  to  be 
doubted  whether  during  all  these  hundred  years  there 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


263 


was  the  least  improvement  in  the  soldier's  lot.  A 
comrade  of  Hidalgo,  Don  Gregoris  Melero  y  Pina, 
says  :  '  And  Ximenes  had  not  one  peso  for 
the  journey  to  Saltillo  ;  and  I  told  him  not  to  be 
afflicted  on  account  of  my  battalions  and  that  he 
should  give  them  not  the  smallest  piece  of  money  till 
we  came  into  the  said  Saltillo,  and  that  with  his  mess 
alone  and  with  two  boxes  of  cigars  which  I  preserved 
we  should  be  rich  ;  my  soldiers  thought  that  all  which 
I  had  done  was  good,  and  as  for  the  remainder  of  the 
army  I  went  out  to  search  for  funds  (which  not  a  few 
were  willing  to  provide,  in  view  of  interest)  and  in  a 
little  time  we  got  4000  pesos.' 

Clouds  were  gathering  on  every  side  when  Don 
Porfirio  secured  an  armistice.  It  was  to  last  for  five 
days  from  the  23rd  April,  but  this  did  not  prove  to  be 
sufficient.  As  the  spokesman  of  the  Government,  a 
judge  was  ordered  to  proceed  to  Juarez,  and  a  couple 
of  unauthorised  ambassadors — Esquivel  Obregon  and 
Oscar  Braniff — tried  their  hand  at  treaty  making. 
Obregon  had  been  the  unsuccessful  candidate  for  the 
Vice-Presidency  of  the  Anti-re-electionists,  when  Dr. 
Vazquez  Gomez  beat  him,  and  he  now  was  anxious 
to  be  prominent ;  while  Oscar  Braniff  had  his 
eye  upon  the  governorship  of  Guanajuato.  But  the 
Braniff  brothers  are  the  progeny  of  a  most  clever 
Irish-American  mason  who  became  a  multi-million- 
aire, and  a  clever  French  maid  who  survives.  From 
this  good  ancestry  they  have  descended  far  enough  ; 
when  they  attempt  to  play  a  part  they  usually  are 
like  that  one  who  excited  merriment  by  posing  on  an 
airship  and  ascending  to  a  height  of  several  yards. 
Another  one  composes  songs,  alas  !  and  yet  another 
one  endeavours  to  make  Mexicans  be  peaceable. 
He  was  quite  angry  with  Madero  when  his  efforts 


264      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


failed.  The  Government,  of  course,  had  no  alterna- 
tive but  to  accept  whatever  terms  Madero  gave  them, 
yet  they  would  not  swallow  the  initial  one,  the 
resignation  of  Porfirio  Diaz.  Don  Porfirio,  that  is  to 
say,  would  not  accept  it,  though  a  number  of  his 
officers  declared  that  quite  enough  had  now  been  done 
to  save  his  face.  '  I  shall  resign,'  quoth  Diaz,  '  when 
I  am  assured  that  I  can  do  so  without  injuring  the 
country.  If  I  go  at  present  it  would  be  to  let  loose 
anarchy,  and  if  I  fix  a  date  it  would  deprive  the 
Government  of  all  stability.  No  !  when  my  conscience 
tells  me  that  the  land  is  pacified  I  shall  depart.' 
And  so  the  fighting  was  resumed.  '  I  will,'  said  Don 
Porfirio,  4  pour  out  the  last  drop  of  my  blood,  if  it  is 
wanted,  for  my  country.'  Hundreds  of  his  country- 
men were  yet  to  feed  the  Revolution.  '  But  I  promise 
I  will  go,'  said  Don  Porfirio,  the  man  who  made  all 
those  promises  at  Tuxtepec  in  1876.  Upon  a  Yuca- 
tecan  hacienda  I  was  shown  a  tree  with  scarlet  flowers 
which  is  popularly  called  the  Tree  of  Tuxtepec, 
because  the  fruit  that  one  seems  justified  in  hoping  for 
is  not  produced  ;  in  place  of  it  there  is  a  harvest  of 
discoloured,  knife-like  objects.  Possibly  the  '  Daily 
Mail '  knew  all  about  these  attributes  of  Don  Porfirio, 
when,  as  the  triumphant  foreign  editor  informed  me, 
they  requested  him  to  be  their  Special  Correspondent. 
But  in  this  respect,  at  all  events,  6  The  Times '  was 
not,  as  Mr.  Garvin  has  called  it,  the  sad  associate  and 
victim  of  the  6  Daily  Mail.' 

While  the  peace  negotiations  were  in  progress,  the 
Maderists  and  the  Federals  of  all  that  part  of  the 
Republic  which  was  not  included  in  the  armistice 
had  been  continuing  the  struggle.  Those  who 
sympathised  with  Don  Porfirio  thought  it  was  oppor- 
tune to  sneer  at  his  opponent  for  the  insubordination 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


265 


of  the  rebels  in  the  rest  of  the  Republic  ;  and  it  would 
have  been  much  more  agreeable  to  Don  Porfirio  if 
all  the  discontented  Mexicans  had  rested  on  their 
arms  awhile,  until  he  could  get  General  Reyes  back 
into  the  country.  Even  if  the  armistice  were  not  to  be 
extended  to  the  minor  leaders,  and  in  the  Madero  dis- 
trict were  to  last  a  fortnight,  it  was  felt  that  General 
Diaz,  Special  Correspondent  of  the  '  Daily  Mail,'  would 
thus  recuperate  himself,  and  with  his  enemies  dis- 
organised, their  zeal  relaxed,  he  would  be  able  much 
more  easily  to  bring  about  the  perfect  peace  which  he 
had  ex  cathedra  been  announcing  to  the  world.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  Madero' s  armistice  was  broken  in  a 
week,  then  it  was  quite  inevitable  that  Porfirio  would 
fall,  since  the  official  status  of  the  revolutionaries 
had  been  recognised  and  the  United  States  would  have 
no  reason  for  not  following  the  Government's  example. 
Don  Porfirio' s  ambassador,  Judge  Carbajal,  made 
every  effort  to  prolong  the  talking,  and  on  the  3rd 
May  Madero  yielded  him  another  period  of  three 
days  armistice.  Madero  was  quite  ready  to  give  up 
his  own  position  ;  he  would  not — except  by  popular 
election — take  an  office,  and  his  relatives  would  also 
step  aside,  if  General  Diaz  would  be  equally  a  patriot. 
The  Constitution  had  been  disregarded  during  many 
years,  and  now  the  rebels  were  determined  to  enforce 
it  !  They  would  not  allow  the  Government,  which 
had  been  vanquished  on  the  field  of  battle  and  was 
utterly  discredited,  to  get  the  better  of  them  in 
diplomacy  :  five  members  of  the  Cabinet  and  fifteen 
Governors  must  be  Maderists  till  the  time  of  the  elec- 
tions, and  the  rebel  army  must  be  paid.  A  rumour  had 
already  circulated  that  Madero  owed  twelve  millions 
and  a  half  of  dollars  to  the  Standard  Oil  Company  ;  he 
was  indebted,  and  incalculably,  to  his  followers' 


266      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


enthusiasm,  to  the  tyranny  of  Don  Porfirio' s  regime. 
These  questions  of  the  Governors  and  Cabinet  were 
on  the  table,  but  the  stubborn  President  refused  to 
think  about  his  resignation  while  the  country  was 
disturbed.  The  Papal  envoy,  prompted  by  the  wife 
of  Diaz,  tried  if  he  could  not  cajole  him,  but  '  I  came 
into  my  seat,'  the  old  man  said,  '  among  a  shower  of 
bullets.  That  is  how  I  shall  depart.'  Four  thousand 
students  of  the  capital  requested  him  to  go,  a  deputa- 
tion of  the  working-men  besought  him  not  to  be  the 
cause  of  further  bloodshed.  He  pretended  to  be 
adamantine  and  extremely  patriotic.  He  could  point 
to  Puebla,  where  the  bandits,  so  he  said,  were  murder- 
ing the  Spaniards  ;  but  a  wealthy  Spanish  hacendado 
had  invited  some  insurgents  to  a  banquet,  rendered 
them  incapable,  and  telephoned  for  Federals.  Is  it 
surprising  that  a  vengeance  was  exacted  ?  At 
Pachuca,  the  great  mining  camp,  it  was  impossible 
for  even  Don  Porfirio  to  label  the  insurgents  as  so 
many  bandits  ;  they  were  in  possession  of  the  town 
and  in  the  plaza  and  with  great  formality  they 
executed  one  of  their  own  men  for  looting.  Every- 
where the  rebels  marched  to  victory  and  showed  that 
they  were  worthy  of  it.  In  the  north  and  in  the  centre 
and  the  south  they  were  prevailing  ;  Don  Porfirio 
was  in  a  plight  as  hopeless  as  was  Mazatlan,  the 
western  port,  whose  tax-collector,  Federal  officials, 
and  the  postman  had  escaped  on  to  a  gunboat,  with 
the  funds.  And  then  Madero,  grieving  that  the  blood 
of  Mexicans  should  still  continue  to  be  shed,  an- 
nounced that  he  would  waive  some  of  the  peace 
conditions,  while  Porfirio  should  for  the  moment  not 
resign.  This  resolution  was,  of  course,  unpopular 
among  his  warriors,  but  he  could  probably  have  kept 
them  from  attacking  Ciudad  Juarez  if  one  Colonel 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


267 


Tamborrel — reputed  to  have  been  an  adept  in  the  ways 
of  mathematics,  but  the  mathematics  he  employed 
as  usurer  were  very  simple — if  this  Tamborrel  had  not 
sent  messages  which  taunted  them  with  cowardice. 

Ciudad  Juarez,  with  the  custom-house  and  with 
huge  stores  of  rifles,  ammunition  and  quick-firing 
guns,  fell  on  the  10th  of  May,  but  not  until  180  men, 
including  Colonel  Tamborrel,  had  been  killed  and 
250  had  been  wounded.  It  was  Colonel  Viljoen's 
opinion  that  this  large  proportion  of  men  shot  was 
owing  to  the  closeness  of  the  range  of  fire.  Navarro's 
army  had  been  beaten1  by  small  farmers  and  by 
tradesmen.  He  himself  with  many  of  his  officers  was 
seized,  and  unlike  many  of  them  he  did  not  break 
his  parole.  The  dour  old  soldier,  in  the  riddled  town 
which  had  resisted  during  three  long  days,  sat  in  the 
jefatura,  now  become  the  Palace  of  Madero's  Govern- 
ment, the  meeting-place  of  his  new  Cabinet.  In  vain 
the  rebels  shouted  for  Navarro's  head  ;  they  still 
remembered  what  his  bayonets  had  done  on  those 
Chihuahua  battlefields,  and  they  were  for  avenging 
Cerro  Prieto,  in  which  place,  when  guarantees  were 
not  suspended,  he  had  ordered  thirty  peasants  to  be 
taken  round  the  corner  of  a  house  and  murdered,  as 
they  could  not  prove — at  all  events  were  quite  in- 
capable of  satisfying  him — that  on  the  previous  day 
they  had  not  been  in  arms  against  the  Government. 
Madero  had  enough  to  do  without  the  task  of  shielding 
his  late  enemy  ;  he  therefore  drove  him  in  his  motor 
to  a  place  at  which  he  could  wade  through  the  Rio 

1  The  subsequent  court-martial  of  Navarro,  when  his  late  opponents 
had  come  into  power,  was  a  good  but  not  by  any  means  a  solitary 
instance  of  Sir  William  Gilbert's  vogue  in  Mexico.  It  is  a  very  rare 
occurrence,  even  in  Central  and  South  America,  for  a  President  to 
behave  as  did  Comonfort  on  19th  of  December,  1857,  when  he  joined 
a  revolution  against  his  own  Government. 


268      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Grande  into  Texas.  Some  of  the  Americans  among 
Madero's  men  had  looted  in  the  streets  of  Juarez, 
Villa,1  one  of  his  assistants,  jealous  of  the  foreign 
legion,  tried  to  murder  Garibaldi  in  a  restaurant 
across  the  border,  and  was  finally  disarmed  by 
American  Secret  Service  agents.  So  much  for  the 
local  difficulties,  and  the  pedestal  to  which  he  had 
ascended  and  from  which  he  could  dictate  to  Diaz 
was  not  made  securer  by  the  fighting  which  continued. 
As  the  Army  of  the  South  came  through  Guerrero  it 
was  pointed  out  that  they  were  disobeying  Don 

1  The  career  of  this  eminent  bandit  and  general  officer  is  typical 
of  Mexico,  where  cotton  mills  and  Pullman  cars  and  thousands  of 
industrious  foreigners  have  not  by  any  means  expelled  Romance. 
The  parents  of  Pancho  Villa  had  a  small  farm,  in  the  State  of 
Durango,  to  which  he  succeeded.  With  his  mother  and  his  sister — 
a  girl  of  great  beauty — he  looked  after  the  farm,  leading  a  most 
active,  hard  and  healthy  life.  His  sister  had  a  number  of  suitors, 
among  them  a  local  magistrate  ;  and  one  day  when  she  vanished 
Pancho  fetched  a  priest  and  rode  with  him  across  the  mountains  in 
pursuit.  They  caught  the  couple,  whom  the  priest  immediately 
married ;  then  the  husband  was  compelled  to  draw  up  his  own  death 
certificate,  the  brother-in-law  killed  him  and  the  priest  prayed  over 
him.  The  others  then  returned  and  Pancho  would  have  lived  quite 
peacefully  upon  the  farm  if  the  rurales  had  not  tried  to  capture  him. 
For  fifteen  years  he  roamed  the  mountains  with  two  faithful  cowboys 
and  although  there  was  a  prize  of  £2000  on  his  head.  He  pillaged 
farms,  he  robbed  the  travellers  and  helped  himself  to  cattle.  In  his 
more  than  eighty  combats  with  rurales,  forty-three  of  these  were 
killed,  while  he  himself  was  eight  times  wounded.  .  .  .  Then  Madero 
rose  and  Villa  saw  that  as  an  active  politician  he  might  take  an 
honourable  place  again  among  his  fellow-countrymen.  And  in  fact 
he  did  become  a  sort  of  national  hero,  a  hero  of  the  Revolution.  He 
became  a  General  of  Rurales.  Now  and  then  he  lapsed  into  his 
brigand  habits,  for  example  at  Parral,  where  he  is  said  to  have 
gathered  from  the  Banco  Minero  and  other  banks  the  sum  of  £18,600, 
out  of  which  he  handed  over  to  the  Revolutionary  funds  exactly 
£13,600.  This  happened  after  he  had  been  devoting  himself  for  a 
long  time  to  Madero's  cause — Raoul  Madero,  the  President's  young 
brother,  was  one  of  his  most  ardent  admirers — and  by  this  time 
Pascual  Orozco  was  in  arms  against  the  cause.  General  Pancho 
Villa  made  out  a  receipt  for  the  money  which  the  Banco  Minero  gave 
him  and  he  added  that  it  was  booty  of  war,  so  that  it  would  not  be 
repaid  by  the  Federal  authorities.  He  pointed  out  that  the  Bank  had 
for  too  long  been  furnishing  money  to  Orozco  in  the  north  ;  now  for  a 
change  they  must  give  a  little  to  the  south. 


LOS  PUJOS  PORFIRISTAS 


~~Senor  expresidente:-no  le  quepa  d  Ud.  </u da;  el  unico 
camino  que  nos  queda  para  volver  d\colar  es  la  gate- 
ja,  6  sea  da  evolucion. 

Porfirian  Yearnings. 

This,  from  the  Impartial,  represents  Don  Porfirio  being  told  by  one  of  his  Ministers  that  evolution 
(hence  the  tail)  is  the  only  system  which  offers  them  a  dog's  chance  (gatera,  lit.  a  cat's  door-hole)  of 

returning  to  power. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


269 


Francisco,  while  the  very  act  of  having  taken  Juarez 
was  held  up  as  proof  that  he  could  not  restrain  his 
men.  '  While  there  is  any  fear  of  anarchy, '  quoth  Don 
Porfirio,  '  I  shall  remain.'  But  now,  with  Juarez  in 
their  hands,  the  revolutionaries  would  not  listen. 
Many  of  them  thought  their  leader  had  been  far 
too  patient  with  the  foe. 

Now  while  the  Revolution,  which  undid  so  much 
of  wrong,  was  near  its  close,  there  came  to  Mexican 
affairs  a  much-belated  evolution  :  Don  Porfirio' s 
new  Minister  of  the  Interior  submitted  a  new  suffrage 
law,  which  had  two  fundamental  principles,  viz.  : 
the  publicity  of  all  acts  connected  with  elections, 
from  the  preparatory  registration  to  the  actual  polling 
and  the  computation  of  the  votes,  as  also  the  inter- 
vention, subject  to  given  rules,  of  political  parties 
legally  organised  in  the  country  for  the  purpose  of 
sustaining  given  principles  and  supporting  given 
candidates  for  office.  Hitherto  all  parties,  save  the 
President's,  had  had  a  most  precarious  existence  ; 
and,  as  we  shall  see,  the  parties  that  came  gradually 
into  prominence  were  often  hostile  to  Madero,  but 
with  him  it  was  to  be  an  era  of  free  speech.  When 
several  ladies  started  to  harangue  the  insurrecto 
troops  at  Juarez  in  an  effort  to  procure  adherents  for 
the  filibusters,  Mexican  and  eke  American,  whose 
socialist  Republic  was  not  faring  well  in  Lower 
California,  Madero  let  them  have  their  say,  though  he 
was  hotly  urged  to  have  them  silenced.  This  and 
many  other  proofs  he  gave  of  the  progressive  spirit, 
but  the  good  proposals  that  Porfirio  was  making  were 
but  golden  pieces  offered  to  his  judges.  By  the  system 
which  prevailed  throughout  his  thirty  years  the 
polling  officers  committed  all  the  fraud  and  violence 
he  wanted  ;  now  the  different  political  parties  were 


270      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 

to  have  the  right  of  vetoing  officials  when  the  nature 
of  their  occupations  made  their  independence  doubt- 
ful. We  were  not  again  to  have  the  edifying  sight — 
which  I  had — of  an  Indian  voter1  handing  in  his  card 
to  four  men  sitting  round  a  table  who,  whatever  may 
have  been  their  humdrum  occupation,  were  just  at 
the  moment  swindling  one  another  at  a  game  of 
monte,  and  on  the  reverse  side  of  the  Indian's  card 
they  put  their  score,  and  when  they  had  used  the  card 
they  tore  it  up.  .  .  .  Another  bill,  long  overdue, 
which  now  was  placed  before  the  deputies  dealt  with 
the  distribution  of  small  tracts  of  land  among  the 
people.  Limantour  himself  had  said  in  France  that 
the  possession,  not  to  speak  of  the  acquiring  of, 
those  vast  estates  in  Mexico  was  pregnant  with 
abuses. 

Since  the  north  was  clearly  settling  down — the 
captive  Federals  were  sent  to  reconstruct  the 
railway — it  became  imperative  for  the  Red  Cross 

1  Yet  when  the  Revolution  had  aroused  the  Indians  and  their 
brothers  it  was  not  so  long  before  they  all  went  back  again  to  sleep. 
At  the  beginning  of  December,  1911,  the  municipal  elections  in  the 
capital  were  marked  by  glacial  indifference.  Some  of  the  polling 
places  were  not  installed  at  all  and  others  not  until  half-past  twelve 
o'clock.  '  The  Government  candidates,'  we  were  told,  '  have  won  an 
easy  victory.'  So  then  the  Revolution  has  not  by  itself  sufficed  to 
give  the  Mexicans  their  freedom,  if  the  sovereignty  is  abdicated  to 
the  public  power.  It  has  been  urged  that  Mexico  must  have  com- 
pulsory democracy,  that  if  the  people  do  not  wish  to  exercise  their 
rights  they  must  be  forced  to.  But  it  is  the  public  power  alone 
which  has  the  necessary  force  at  its  disposal.  When  the  people  will 
not  vote,  then  someone  votes  on  their  behalf.  And  that  someone 
else  is  always  the  same.  'Tis  useless  to  disguise  the  fact.  These 
things  occurred  when  Diaz  was  the  President  and  they  continue.  .  .  . 
But  the  axolotl — Mexico's  strange  reptile — can  grow  up.  For  many 
years  it  was  supposed  that  these  inhabitants  of  Lake  Texcoco  (who 
are  called  thus  from  the  Aztec  atl — water  and  xolotl— slave)  were 
never  able  to  transform  into  adults,  who  would  have  soon  become 
extinct  if  at  the  age  of  six  months  they  had  not  been  infant  prodigies. 
However,  it  has  now  been  ascertained  that  this  repulsive-looking 
larval  salamander  can  develop,  under  favourable  circumstances,  lungs 
and  tail.  But  those  who  do  this  and  embark  upon  a  new  existence 
as  lizards  are  not  many. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


271 


Society  to  do  or  die.  They  died.  For  months  they 
had  been  saying  that  the  country  was  too  mountain- 
ous, and  also  that  the  army  guns  were  better  than 
the  insurrecto  weapons,  so  that  Federals  were  seldom 
hit,  and  with  the  others  they  could  scarcely  sym- 
pathise !  Then,  in  a  night,  a  new  Society — the  White 
Cross — sprang  upon  the  world,  its  chief  an  energetic 
Texas  lady,  granddaughter  of  General  Mejia  who  was 
shot  with  Maximilian.  This  Society  went  out  into 
the  field  at  once,  begged  money  everywhere  in  every 
manner  possible  and  otherwise,  and  was  enabled  to 
accomplish  a  good  deal.  .  .  .  Down  in  Guerrero's 
pine-clad  mountains  was  a  lady  of  the  utmost  energy, 
the  leader  of  a  formidable  band  of  rebels.  She — La 
Neri  was  her  name — had  operated  near  the  ancient 
port  of  Acapulco  ;  now  she  turned  towards  the  capital, 
and  it  was  understood — a  letter  being  intercepted — 
that  she  with  her  own  fair  hands  was  anxious  to 
decapitate  Porfirio.  They  say  that  he,  with  his  bluff 
humour,  spoke  about  Guerrero  as  the  State  in  which 
an  erring  woman  started  the  disease  of  pinto,1  through 
cohabiting  with  a  crocodile.  The  leader  of  the  Army 
of  the  South,  Ambrosio  Figueroa,  had  in  vain  sent  one 
of  his  three  stalwart  brothers  to  make  terms  with  Diaz. 
He  had  seen  him  in  the  capital  and  told  him  that  it 
was  no  other  than  himself  who  was  responsible  for 
all  the  Revolution.  '  You  have  made,'  said  he,  '  this 
Revolution.'  4  Como  ?  I  ?  What  do  you  mean  ?  ' 
cried  Diaz.  And  the  leader  of  8000  troops  explained 
that  it  was  owing  to  Corral's  appointment.  '  I 
have  many  cannons.  I  shall  put  you  down  !  '  so  said 
the  President,  and  Don  Francisco  travelled  back  into 

1  A  species  of  leprosy  which  is  prevalent  in  parts  of  Guerrero  and 
Chiapas.  Black  spots  emerge  on  the  face  and  spread  until  the  entire 
face  is  covered  with  a  blue-black  blotch. 


Tl%      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


the  mountains.  There  his  brother  made  a  proclama- 
tion which  could  leave  no  doubt  but  that  this  army 
was  quite  loyal  to  Madero.  4  The  Government,'  he 
said,  4  will  make  arrangements  with  us  after  we  dis- 
card our  noted  chief,'  and  this  4  would  weaken  the 
force  of  the  armed  protest  which  all  the  sons  of  Mexico 
have  settled  to  maintain.'  One  of  the  reasons  why 
the  war  must  be  continued  was  4  because  when  we 
asked  through  our  peace  representatives  for  the 
resignation  of  General  Diaz,  he  answered  categorically 
that  he  would  not  resign,  and  only  promised  in  his 
manifesto  that  he  would  retire  when  his  conscience 
indicated  to  him  that  peace  was  firmly  established. 
The  revolutionists  put  no  faith  in  the  performances 
of  his  conscience,  but  only  in  truth  and  justice.' 
Figueroa's  force  was  larger  than  Madero' s,  better 
armed  and  infinitely  better  trained,  although  the 
Boer  who  was  Madero's  chief-of-staff  had  inculcated 
much  of  his  experience.  If  Don  Porfirio  complained 
that  they  were  bandits,  though  they  did  keep  perfect 
order,  though  the  army's  business  was  conducted  in 
a  large  house  with  a  set  of  books  and  clerks  and  type- 
writers and  the  essentials  of  a  well-established  business 
venture,  if  the  chief  of  that  half-convict  army  made 
complaint — well,  who  would  listen  ?  In  the  State  of 
Puebla  was  a  force  of  15,000  rebels  who  had  seized 
3000  Mausers  from  the  Federals  and  six  machine-guns. 

There  was  only  one  bright  spot  for  Don  Porfirio, 
since  he  received  a  declaration  of  unaltered  loyalty 
and  great  respect  from  the  'Society  of  Friends  of 
General  Diaz.'  If  he  waved  this  valuable  document 
he  would  be  able,  doubtless,  to  send  all  the  insurreclos 
running  home.  The  '  Friends  '  were,  many  of  them, 
taking  steps  to  leave  for  Europe,  but  they  made  such 
mighty   flourishes — it   is  the   custom — underneath 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


273 


their  autographs.  .  .  .  However,  let  it  not  be  thought 
that  all  the  richer  folk,  except  Madero,  stood — if  that 
word  is  appropriate — beside  the  President.  He  had 
won  favour  with  capitalists,  he  had  maintained  the 
public  credit  and  what  looked  like  order,  by  the 
disregard  for  human  rights  ;  and  yet  some  of  the 
wealthy  class  had  always  been  in  opposition.  Now 
from  Aguascalientes  came  the  stirring  news  that 
two  or  three  young  gentlemen  who  had  been  nothing 
more  than  members  of  the  jeunesse  doree  were 
upon  the  warpath,  and,  indeed,  they  did  not  go  light- 
heartedly,  for  when  they  found  that  a  Maderist  had 
been  giving  way  to  brigandage  they  had  him  shot. 
And  fighting  for  the  cause  were  General  Tapia, 
commander  in  Atlixco,  who  a  month  before  had  been 
a  shoemaker  with  daily  wages  of  a  dollar,  and  Jalisco's 
General  Aragon,  who  was  a  barber.1  This  was  just 
like  dear  old  times,  when  soldiers  were  impromptu  ; 
for  example,  General  Zaragoza  of  the  5th  of  May, 
and  his  subordinate  Porfirio  Diaz.  .  .  .  While  the 
Government  was  swiftly  losing  ground  the  country 
was  emerging  from  the  shades  of  barbarism.  A 
proposal  came  before  the  Congress — and  in  three 
days  was,  with  some  improvements,  made  a  law — 
to  set  free  those  who  were  imprisoned  on  account  of 
politics.  The  Revolution  had  been  everywhere 
triumphant  in  a  military  sense  and  a  political  .  .  . 
and  if  the  Government  commanded  that  whole 
States  should  be  delivered  over  to  the  rebels,  it  was 
certainly  unreasonable  to  continue  holding  in  con- 
finement the  unarmed  adherents  of  the  Revolution. 
Just  at  this  time  Cuernavaca  was  evacuated  and  the 

11  The  native  colonels  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  not  endowed, 
says  Humboldt,  save  with  gorgeous  uniforms  and  royal  decorations 
by  King  Charles  the  Third  of  Spain,  and  thus  equipped  one  could 
perceive  them  at  the  counters  of  their  little  shops. 
T 


274      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Army  of  the  South  replaced  the  garrison  and  the 
police,  who  silently  departed  in  the  night  of  20th  of 
May.  There  was  no  semblance  of  disorder  ;  when 
the  rebels  had  been  in  this  lovely  and  historic  town 
for  thirty  minutes  they  arranged  for  patrols  and 
forbade  the  furnishing  of  liquor  to  their  men.  The 
riotous  examples  of  Pachuca  and  of  Uruapam  were 
not  followed  ;  at  the  first  of  these,  before  the  rebels 
shot  a  man  for  looting  and  thus  calmed  the  more 
exuberant  companions,  all  the  prisoners  had  been 
released,  the  prison  burned,  the  archives  also — in 
accordance  with  the  general  custom — burned,  and 
many  things  blown  up — the  miners  being  perfectly 
familiar  with  the  use  of  dynamite.  Meanwhile  the 
Governor  was  concealed,  and  after  he  had  been 
unearthed  and  put  into  a  temporary  cell  he  wrote 
enormous  letters  to  the  Press,  because  he  wanted  to 
explain  that  he  had  been  abandoned  by  his  men — 
the  Revolution  being  all  too  popular — and  so  he  was, 
he  said,  no  coward.  Uruapam  of  the  tiled,  squat 
houses  in  the  middle  of  her  coffee  trees  and  negligent 
banana  trees  and  all  the  flowers  of  Paradise,  was  made 
the  victim  of  her  prefect's  cowardly  behaviour. 
6  Its  people,'  says  a  guide-book,  4  are  pleasant,'  and 
they  probably  would  have  remained  so  if  the  prefect 
with  the  soldiers  had  not  run  away  ;  these  ninety 
men  had  sallied  forth  to  meet  a  body  of  Maderists 
who  were  said  to  be  upon  the  outskirts  of  the  town, 
and  as  the  prefect  changed  his  mind  and  led  them 
back  into  the  plaza  he  was  greeted  by  some  boot- 
blacks who  exclaimed,  '  Viva  Madero  ! '  He  was 
quick  to  gather  the  significance  of  such  a  demonstra- 
tion, and  he  made  a  speech  in  which  he  said  that  he 
was  sorry  to  be  so  unpopular.  The  less  deserving 
Indians  of  the  neighbourhood — it  was  a  Sunday, 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


275 


they  were  idling  in  the  pretty  plaza — shouted  with 
the  bootblacks,  and  immediately  the  prefect,  Salvador 
Gutierrez — let  his  name  be  known — went  off  escorted 
by  the  soldiers.  Merchants  and  the  leading  citizens 
besought  him  to  allow  the  troops  to  stay,  but  he 
required  them  for  his  personal  protection.  Then  the 
rougher  element  felt  their  own  courage  rise  amazingly, 
and  as  the  military  disappeared  they  hurried  off 
to  storm  the  gaol.  They  gave  300  prisoners  their 
freedom.  It  was  all  that  Manuel  Coria,  an  old 
gentleman,  could  do  to  ride  among  the  angry  mob 
and  to  dissuade  them  for  a  time  from  plundering 
the  stores.  At  last  they  came  with  knives  and  axes, 
would  have  murdered  him  (the  prefect-substitute), 
and  started  looting.  While  the  men  were  thus 
employed  the  women  and  the  children  from  the  age 
of  four  were  waiting  in  the  street  to  carry  off  the 
goods,  and  when  this  method  was  too  slow  the  mules 
were  brought  and  loaded  and  were  driven  to  a  place 
of  safety  in  the  woods.  Not  only  were  the  public 
records  used  for  bonfires,  but  the  ledgers  were  all 
taken  from  the  stores  and  burned.  On  Monday  night 
Maderist  soldiers  reached  the  town,  declaring  that 
when  they  had  found  the  worst  offenders  they  would 
shoot  them,  and  it  has  been  said  that  three  score  men 
were  executed.  Such  a  lamentable  orgy  was  avoided 
by  the  citizens  of  Cuernavaca  ;  seeing  that  the  prison 
guard  had  been  removed  while  it  was  dark  they  had 
the  prudence  to  collect  a  lavish  breakfast  for  the 
prisoners  and  thus  to  keep  them  occupied — while  other 
citizens  got  ready  flowers  and  flags  and  painted  out 
the  name  of  Diaz  everywhere — and  then  the  rebels 
came,  flung  would-be  rioters  into  the  prison,  issued 
an  announcement  that  the  price  for  looting  and  for 
gathering  in  crowds  was  death  ;  this  had  a  tendency 


276      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


to  quiet  the  more  restless  ones,  and  soon  the  civil 
Government  was  being  well  established. 

4  Adaptiveness,'  quoth  Emerson,  4  is  the  pecu- 
liarity of  human  nature,'  which  would  seem  to  prove 
that  there  is  something  human  in  the  4  Mexican 
Herald,'  for  it  was  engaged  at  this  time  in  assuming 
a  convenient  attitude  with  all  the  speed  that  it 
considered  decent.  During  these  last  weeks  it  had 
allowed  a  jeweller  to  advertise  upon  the  page  that 
once  was  kept  for  leading  articles,  and  on  the  inter- 
vening space  they  talked  about  Hawaii.  Yes,  when 
they  announced  that  Diaz  would  resign,  the  4  leader ' 
was  a  calm  discussion  of  the  labour  problem  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands.  The  resignation  of  Porfirio  was 
in  the  peace  agreement  of  the  21st  of  May,  when  it 
was  settled  also  that  Corral  should  vanish  and  that 
de  la  Barra,  Foreign  Secretary,  should  become  the 
President  ad  interim.  '  Henceforward  the  hostilities 
which  have  existed  in  the  entire  national  territory  of 
the  Republic  shall  cease,'  it  said,  '  between  the  forces 
of  the  Government  and  those  of  the  Revolution,  those 
forces  to  be  dismissed  in  proportion  as  in  each  State 
the  necessary  steps  are  taken  to  guarantee  tranquillity 
and  public  order.'  Some  time  would  elapse  before 
the  rebels  of  the  whole  Republic  could  be  notified. 
And  as  in  many  States  the  Revolution  had  been  due 
to  hatred  of  the  Governor-despot,  the  retention  of  an 
armed  force  till  new  Governors  could  be  installed 
would  constitute  a  guarantee.  It  was  impossible  to 
trust  Porfirio  Diaz,  though  we  cannot  say  that  it  was 
he  who  instigated  the  attempts  to  bribe  Orozco,  and 
— by  means  of  one  de  Villiers — lure  Viljoen,  and 
assassinate  Madero.  4  When  the  peace  is  finally 
secured,'  so  said  Madero  to  his  soldiers,  4  you  will 
have  the  privilege  of  leaving,  if  you  like,  the  army. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


277 


There  will  be  no  conscription.  The  army  which  in 
future  will  uphold  the  liberty  as  guaranteed  by  the 
Constitution  will  be  made  of  soldiers  who  come  in  of 
their  free  will  and  who  receive  good  pay.'  As  for 
the  Government  which,  after  Don  Porfirio's  depar- 
ture, would  be  constituted,  it  was  evident  the  rebels 
had  no  real  plans  ;  they  had  a  genius  for  makeshifts, 
and  in  no  round  hole  was  there  the  spectacle  of  any 
square  peg  being  harboured.  It  was  truly  wonderful 
how  the  Maderists  bore  themselves,  and  though  we 
must  not  imitate  that  book  of  Bourget's  which 
depicted  all  the  Protestants  as  scoundrels  and  the 
Catholics  as  angels,  we  were  justified,  I  think,  in 
claiming  that  Madero,  Dr.  Vazquez  Gomez,  and  the 
rest  of  them  were  more  than  men  of  promise.  We  had 
got  their  conduct  in  adversity  to  guide  us,  and  when 
they  were  taking  over  the  Republic  it  was  at  an 
hour  of  such  high  chaos  that  the  very  fact  of  their 
survival  was  a  wonder.  In  Guadalajara  there  was  such 
rejoicing  at  the  news  of  peace,  the  bells  were  rung  and 
happy  citizens  with  flags  and  branches  in  their  hands 
assembled  in  the  plaza — five  of  them  were  shot  by 
the  rurales,  and,  in  consequence,  the  rash  young 
Governor  resigned.  In  other  days  he  could  with 
absolute  impunity  have  checked  the  demonstration, 
but  the  people's  character  was  changing.  Hard  by, 
in  Colima,  forty  bandits — fifteen  of  them  carried 
arms — knew  very  well  who  was  Porfirio's  governor. 
In  that  unlucky  little  State  some  sportsmen  had,  a 
week  or  two  before,  been  shooting  birds  ;  the  soldiers 
thought  that  they  were  rebels  and  incontinently 
shot  a  couple  of  them  dead  ;  the  other  one  escaped, 
but  on  the  morrow  he  returned  with  both  his  hands 
held  up  as  a  precaution,  and  the  soldiers  shot  him  in 
the  back.  Such  was  the  bravery  of  Senor  Don  Enrique 


278      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


O.  de  Lamadrid,  the  Governor  ;  he  did  not  hesitate 
a  moment  in  delivering  Colima  to  the  bandits,  though 
the  garrison  was  better  armed  and  much  more 
numerous  than  they.  But  it  is  questionable  whether 
any  bandit  could  be  more  nefarious  than  Don  Enrique, 
under  whose  administration  you  were  punished  more 
severely  if  you  stole  a  bean  than  if  you  killed  a  man ; 
indeed,  a  murderer  had  only  to  become  the  servant 
of  a  wealthy  hacendado.  Don  Enrique's  term  of  office 
was  approaching  its  conclusion  ;  in  a  certain  night 
some  years  ago  another  sort  of  a  conclusion  had  been 
probable,  when  he  had  staggered  from  a  banquet — 
walking,  quite  exceptionally,  unassisted — to  the 
chamber  of  the  hacendado' 's  wife.  Just  as  preposter- 
ous as  these  two  Governors  were  other  representatives 
of  Diaz.  We  have  seen  at  Uruapam  how  the  rebel 
troops  were  summoned  for  the  maintenance  of  order, 
and  the  whole  Republic  would  have  fallen  into 
anarchy  if  they  had  been  less  vigilant.  The  mob — 
maliciously  excited  by  the  old  regime — was  eager  to 
avail  itself  of  golden  opportunities.  'If  I  go  at 
present  it  would  be  to  let  loose  anarchy.'  Yes  ! 
Don  Porfirio  delayed  his  going.  On  the  24th  of  May 
the  Chamber  overflowed  with  citizens,  who  took  by 
storm  the  seats  of  diplomats  and  Press  and  the 
Supreme  Tribunal.  Swaying  to  and  fro,  they  hardly 
could  await  the  message  of  Porfirio's  resignation. 
It  was  not  to  come,  a  handbill  circulated  through 
the  crowd  announcing  that  the  people  were  deceived 
again,  that  Diaz  did  not  purpose  to  resign.  The 
crowd  was  in  a  wild  confusion  instantly,  and  the 
police,  who  tried  to  clear  the  galleries,  were  impotent. 
Amid  the  howling  tempest  one  could  hear  a  bell,  but 
not  the  chairman's  voice.  4  Viva  Madero  !  Muera 
Diaz  !  The  resignation  !   The  resignation  !  *  Finally 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


279 


Don  Manuel  Calero  (afterwards  a  Minister)  yelled  out 
the  news  that  it  would  be  to-morrow.  4  No !  no !  to-day ! 
Now  !  We  demand  the  resignation  !  '  Other  voices 
could  be  heard  :  6  People,  you  have  been  deceived  ! 
They  are  not  going  to  resign  !  Quick — to  Cadena  I ' 
Sweeping  out  into  the  daylight  they  bombarded  with 
a  shower  of  rocks  the  building  of  4  El  Imparcial,'  and 
there  would  probably  have  been  no  bloodshed  if  a 
member  of  the  secret  police  had  not  flung  an  insult  or 
let  his  revolver  off — the  stories  vary — at  a  working- 
man.  Then  the  offender  fled  into  a  hat-shop  and  was 
there  besieged.  A  large  detachment  of  reserves 
came  dashing  to  the  Zocalo  with  their  revolvers 
drawn  ;  they  rained  a  shower  of  bullets  into  the 
retreating,  struggling  mass.  The  Zocalo  or  Plaza 
Mayor  or  Plaza  de  Armas  is  the  spot  whereon,  in  1325, 
the  migrant  Aztecs  laid  the  city's  first  foundations, 
since  they  there  beheld  a  royal  eagle  of  extraordinary 
size  and  beauty  with  a  serpent  in  his  talons  and  his 
broad  wings  open  to  the  rising  sun — this  picture  was 
emblazoned  on  the  flag  of  the  Republic.  Grisly  scenes 
took  place  upon  the  Zocalo  in  Aztec  and  in  Spanish 
times  ;  the  24th  of  May — if  details  were  related — 
would  be  held  as  not  inferior  to  those.  The  house  of 
Diaz  in  Cadena  was  protected  very  well  by  soldiers 
and  police,  but  such  as  were  within — the  President 
himself  lay  stricken  with  an  ulcerated  tooth — could 
hear  the  frenzy  of  the  people  crying,  4  Viva  Madero  ! 
Muera  Diaz  !  '  He  had  been  their  President  through- 
out another  day.  And  on  the  next  day  he  resigned  ; 
between  the  bedroom  where  he  tossed  in  agony  and 
that  luxurious  apartment  where  the  Cabinet  was 
gathered  Limantour  went  to  and  fro.  4  Not  once,' 
said  Limantour,  4  did  he  think  of  himself.  Every 
thought  he  expressed  was  for  the  future  of  his  country. 


280      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


His  resignation  must  for  ever  silence  those  who  could 
not  find  another  criticism  than  that  he  perpetually 
lusted  after  power.'  Tricoloured  flags  without  the 
royal  eagle  and  the  serpent  fluttered  everywhere. 

And  let  us  see  what  Diaz  wrote  :  1  Senor  ' — it  was 
the  chairman  of  the  House  of  Deputies  whom  he 
addressed — 1  The  Mexican  people  which  has  so 
generously  lavished  honours  upon  me  .  .  .  which 
seconded  me  patriotically  .  .  .  that  people,  sir,  has 
risen  in  armed  bands,  declaring  that  my  presence  at 
the  head  of  the  executive  is  the  cause  of  the  insurrec- 
tion. I  know  of  no  act  imputable  to  myself  that  could 
warrant  this  charge  ;  but,  over  and  above  the  fact  that 
I  may  have  offended  without  knowing  it,  I  am  not  the 
person  to  be  a  judge  as  to  the  merits  of  my  own  case. 
Therefore,  respecting,  as  I  have  always  respected,  the 
will  of  the  people,  I  come  before  you  now,  in  accord- 
ance with  Article  82  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  to 
resign  unreservedly  the  high  office  of  President  of  the 
Republic,  to  which  I  was  elevated  by  the  vote  of  the 
nation,  and  I  do  it  the  more  readily  in  that  by  retain- 
ing the  office  in  question  I  should  be  exposing  the 
country  to  further  bloodshed,  to  the  loss  of  its  credit, 
to  the  destruction  of  its  wealth,  to  the  extinction  of 
its  activities,  and  the  risk  of  international  complica- 
tions. .  .  .  An  ampler  and  more  dispassionate  survey 
will  lead  to  a  true  estimate  of  my  acts,  allowing  me 
when  I  die  to  carry  with  me  the  consoling  sense  that  I 
have  in  the  end  been  understood  by  my  countrymen,to 
whose  welfare  I  have  devoted  and  will  continue  to 
devote  my  entire  energies.'  The  populace,  in  large 
bodies  of  5000  and  in  smaller  ones,  paraded  joyously 
through  all  the  streets  ;  some  had  a  military  band  and 
some  an  orchestra  of  violins  to  lead  them — it  was  like 
a  merry  picnic.    And  the  total  list  of  casualties 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


281 


numbered  thirty-eight — one  unidentified  person  dead 
and  thirty-seven  wounded,  among  whom  there  were 
eleven  injured  by  bullets.  Great  activity  was  shown 
by  the  White  Cross  Society,  and  by  the  Red  Cross, 
which  had  taken  a  new  lease  of  life.  The  services  of 
these  benevolent  associations  were  appreciated,  so 
that  motors  and  the  members  decorated  with  the 
badges  of  the  two  societies  were  heartily  applauded 
as  they  sped  along.  I  hear  that  comments  of  the  most 
favourable  character  were  made  all  over  the  town.  And 
demonstrators  went  unhindered  through  the  suburbs, 
to  the  music  not  alone  of  military  bands  or  riddles  ; 
there  was  that  which  is  evoked  from  empty  cans — 
mtisica  de  petroleo,  they  call  it — and  one  cannot 
surmise  what  the  natives  in  this  hour  of  triumph  would 
have  done  without  the  precious  Standard  Oil  tins. 
So  the  feared  and  famous  Trust  did,  after  all,  partici- 
pate in  Mexico's  good  Revolution. 

No  one  will  deny  that  under  Diaz  Mexico  had  made 
a  notable  advance ;  the  Government  was  even 
patriotic  in  a  way.  But  it  pretended  to  derive  its 
power  from  the  people's  will,  whereas  it  stifled  the 
expression  of  such  will,  it  was  a  military  oligarchy. 
Such  a  system  must  involve  subservience  and 
ignorance,  while  at  the  same  time  nowadays  a  ruler 
has  to  feign  at  least  that  he  is  on  the  side  of  education  ; 
and  with  even  such  a  semi-education  as  Porfirio 
provided  such  a  Government  becomes  impossible. 
When,  as  the  6  New  York  Evening  Post '  observed, 
the  repressed  millions  are  able  to  read  their  own 
history  and  laws  and  to  think  about  them  and  to  know 
what  the  democratic  movement  is  in  the  world  outside, 
their  demand  for  a  share  in  the  Government  can  no 
more  be  restrained  than  can  their  intellects.  And 
it  was  the  new  generation,  which  Diaz  for  very 


282      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


shame  could  not  refuse  to  help  create  in  Mexico,  which 
proved  his  undoing.  Political  ideas  had  been  let  loose, 
and  their  ferment  in  the  popular  mind  made  the 
usurping  of  government  by  a  clique  no  longer  possible. 
Education,  as  John  Morley  has  said,  cannot  deny  its 
own  children.  If  in  Mexico,  or  India,  or  the  Philippines 
we  venture  to  open  closed  minds  and  teach  to  young 
men  liberty  and  self-government,  we  must  not  be 
astonished  if  the  lessons  are  applied  even  to  our  own 
discomfort.  Diaz  did  not  merely  fall  because  the  army 
proved  a  vain  thing,  but  because  the  people  had  it  in 
their  hearts  that  he  should  fall.  In  August,  1909,  a 
most  serene  and  loyal  article  appeared  in  6  El 
Imparcial,'  whose  object  was  to  show  conclusively  that 
revolutions  had  become  impossible  in  Mexico.  This 
odious  journal,  subsidised  by  those  who  held  the 
country,  was  among  the  foremost  causes  of  the 
Revolution.  Now  they  published  a  long,  clever 
editorial — '  Ni  amigos,  ni  enemigos  ' — wherein  they 
said  that  for  the  future  they  would  be  serene,  the 
kindly  critics,  not  the  friends  and — for  the  best  of 
patriotic  reasons — not  the  foes  of  Don  Francisco. 
As  for  being  subsidised — had  they  committed  errors  ? 
They  were  human,  and  the  very  day-star  does  not 
always  shine  with  equal  radiance.  The  subsidy  had 
been  employed  in  lotteries  and  gifts  to  the  subscribers 
of  the  paper;  partly  it  had  been  directed  to  the 
forwarding  of  social  and  artistic  works,  and  partly  to 
the  publication  of  a  handsome  supplement  (which 
now  they  would  perhaps  not  be  in  a  position  to 
continue) ;  partly  it  had  been  employed  in  paying  for 
a  period  of  fifteen  years  the  hundreds  of  mechanics 
and  those  other  workers  and  the  thousands  who  had 
lived  by  selling  this  most  popular  of  journals. 
4  Ni  amigos,  ni  enemigos.'     Some  days  later  '  El 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


283 


Imparcial '  replied  to  certain  scoffers  whose  male- 
volence or  absence  of  sagacity  had  given  a  distorted 
reading  to  the  manifesto.  But  by  penetrating,  so  they 
said,  into  the  Mexican  psychology  they  found  that  the 
misguided  conduct  of  their  critics  had  been  owing 
to  the  novelty  in  Mexico  of  a  pure,  independent  paper. 
They  would  be  not  of  Porfirio  Diaz  nor  of  Don 
Francisco  I.  Madero,  but  of  all  the  people  ;  they 
would  place  themselves  upon  a  lofty  seat,  and  be 
impartial,  loyal  and  serene.  Some  others  who  had 
been  the  tools  of  Don  Porfirio  did  not  desire  to  operate 
with  any  new  regime,  for  Coahuila's  legislative  body 
put  itself  against  the  man  who  was  appointed  by 
Madero  to  be  Governor  ad  interim.  This  Don  Venus- 
tiano  Carranza,  who  had  come  into  the  war  like  any 
feudal  prince,  with  cohorts  of  retainers,  was  accom- 
panied by  insurrecto  soldiers  to  his  new  position.  In 
the  previous  elections,  to  be  sure,  he  was  if  not  the 
popular  at  least  the  opposition  candidate,  and  it  was 
Don  Porfirio' s  party  which  had  given  office  to  the 
legislative  body.  Then  a  law  relating  to  elections  was 
not  ratified  by  the  assembly  of  Tabasco,  though  the 
Chamber  in  its  recent  strivings  after  evolution  had 
approved.  With  the  prevailing  notions  as  to  freedom 
and  the  fearless  hunger  for  reforms  which  permeates 
society,  this  action  of  Tabasco — in  upholding,  as  it 
does  undoubtedly,  the  legal  right  of  States — is  capable 
of  serious  developments.  But  those  who  then 
succeeded  Don  Porfirio  would  not,  like  him,  lay  the 
foundations  of  their  house  amid  the  pestilential 
meadows  where  no  rivalry  can  rear  its  head.  And 
of  the  parties  that  were  to  participate  in  Mexican 
affairs,  perhaps  the  most  important,  after  the  Maderist 
party  (and  in  union  with  it),  was  the  Church.  Men 
and  money  are  at  her  disposal,  both  the  willing  and 


284      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


unwilling  peasants  whom  the  hacendados  can  control, 
and  money  to  a  greater  sum  than  the  capitalisation 
of  all  the  Government  banks.  For  years  the  Church 
has  been  obliged  to  wield  a  rather  subterranean 
influence,  but  now,  with  formal  programme  and  with 
admirable  candidates,  it  has  emerged  into  the  day- 
light. We  who  stood  and  watched  might  well  be 
fascinated  by  the  situation  :  in  the  days  of  Diaz,  who 
officially  opposed  the  Church,  it  was  in  '  El  Pais  '  and 
6  El  Tiempo,'  organs  of  the  Catholic  party,  that  the 
politics  of  Diaz  were  subjected  to  the  most  efficient 
and  relentless  criticism  ;  if  they  could  assail  that 
Government  with  something  like  impunity — Don 
Trinidad  Sanchez  Santos  of  1  El  Pais  '  was,  as  we  have 
mentioned,  offered  an  asylum  in  almost  every  house 
which  has  a  secret  chamber  when  he  was  compelled 
to  hide  himself  in  February,  1911 ;  the  most  pompous 
little  journalist  who  owns  and  edits  4  El  Tiempo  '  has  a 
secret  chamber  on  the  premises — how  would  they  not 
assail  the  liberal,  milder  Government  ?  Madero  was 
inclined  to  place  them  in  the  same  position  as  they 
have  in  the  United  States,  and  that  is  a  position 
which  the  Catholics  of  Lower  Canada  are  now  assert- 
ing is  ideal.  Where  you  have,  as  in  the  Mexican 
Republic,  such  a  number  of  illiterates  (a  good  deal 
more  than  half  the  adult  population),  it  is  question- 
able whether  such  a  freedom  can  be  granted,  and  it 
is  not  certain  that  the  grant  of  it  would  satisfy  the 
Church.  Yet  under  the  Australian  ballot  and  the 
broader  franchise  it  is  probable  that  she,  far  better 
organised  than  was  Madero' s  party,  would — if  there 
had  been  no  bargain — have  defeated  him  at  the 
elections. 

'  I  will,'  said  Don  Porfirio,  '  pour  out  the  last  drop 
of  my  blood,  if  it  is  wanted,  for  my  country.'  But 


A  "  Shoofly  "  built  round  a  Train 

wrecked  by  revolutionaries  near  Huamantla,  on  24th  May,  1911,  two  days  before  the  flight  of  Diaz. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


this  grievous  want  did  not  arise,  it  seems.  At  any 
rate,  on  the  26th  May,  just  as  the  grey  wings  of  the 
dawn  were  gliding  over  that  high  mountain  ridge,  the 
famous  warrior  stole  away.  The  bullets  which,  he 
told  the  Papal  envoy,  would  be  needed  at  his  going 
were,  as  far  as  possible,  dispensed  with,  and  to  guard 
himself  against  them  he  had  two  whole  trains  of 
soldiers  under  General  Huerta  :  a  battalion  of  the 
Zapadores  in  a  train  preceding  his,  part  of  the  twenty- 
fifth  battalion  in  the  train  behind  him.  Thus  he 
hurried  down  to  Veracruz,  and  though  the  bullets 
came  en  route  at  Tepechualco — for  he  thought  it  was 
expedient  to  take  the  narrow-gauge,  less  ostentatious 
line — his  escort  only  lost  some  six  or  seven  killed. 
6 1  will  pour  out  the  last  drop  of  my  blood,'  said  Don 
Porfirio  when  he  was  thinking  of  his  faithful  army  and 
police — the  number  of  assassinations  they  and  others 
had  committed  in  compliance  with  his  will  has  been 
put  down  by  good  authorities  at,  roundly,  30,000. 
When  at  last  he  came  to  Veracruz  he  was  in  such  a 
state  of — shall  we  call  it  toothache  ? — that  he  had  to 
be  extracted  from  the  car  by  two  attendants,  and 
removed  upon  their  shoulders.  Veracruz,  for  reasons 
dating  back  to  1879,  is  not  the  place  where  Don 
Porfirio  would  come  in  search  of  health,  and  these 
few  necessary  days  before  the  boat  could  sail  were 
spent  in  Messrs.  Pearson's  house,  with  many  soldiers 
guarding  him,  the  British  flag  above.  On  the  28th 
May  a  sea-breeze,  so  they  tell  us,  made  the  torrid 
port  more  bearable  ;  perhaps  it  was  not  strong  enough, 
this  breeze,  to  carry  from  the  dungeons  of  the  island- 
gaol,  San  Juan  de  Ulua,  the  complaint  of  sixty 
prisoners  to  the  ears  of  Don  Porfirio.  It  had  been 
necessary  for  Lord  Cowdray  (of  Messrs.  Pearson)  to 
obtain  some  lands  upon  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec, 


286      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


where  he  has  built  a  railway  which  will  have  an 
interesting  competition  with  the  Panama  Canal.  A 
most  handsome  price  was  offered  for  the  lands  that 
were  in  the  possession  of  the  family  of  Madame  Diaz  ; 
and  the  President,  when  it  was  paid,  disposed  of  other 
lands  at  Acayucan  to  Lord  Cowdray's  firm.  The  native 
owners  of  the  soil  did  not  agree  to  this  arrangement. 
Whether,  as  I  hear  from  one  source,1  the  land  was 
Government  property,  or,  as  the  other  sources  say, 
the  land  was  native  property,  it  is  a  fact  that  when 
it  was  transferred  to  Messrs.  S.  Pearson  and  Son,  the 
natives  rose — they  surely  could  not  think  this  firm 
would  be  a  more  nefarious  landlord  than  the  Govern- 
ment which  then  prevailed — and  when  the  troops 
came  down  a  number  of  the  natives  fell  (again  this 
number  varies  greatly  with  the  source  of  informa- 
tion),— *  Lord  Cowdray  is  like  Napoleon  .  .  .  when 
his  plan  is  thought  out,'  says  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor, 
'he  is  certain  of  the  results,  and  has  all  the  joy 
and  none  of  the  terrors  of  battle ' — and  it  seems 
from  all  accounts  that  some  300  were  dispatched 
to  prison,  where  they  stayed  without  a  trial. 
The  tuberculosis  in  San  Juan,  which  removed 
Rosado,  an  aggressive  kind  of  lawyer,  played  such 
havoc  on  the  men  of  Acayucan  that,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  some  other  causes,  only  sixty  of  them — I  have 
got  these  figures  from  the  doctor — still  survived.  Their 
land  is  not  the  best  for  grazing,  but  is  used  for  that  ; 
and  even  if  the  natives  who  remain  upon  it  have 
declined  to  pay  their  rent  it  gives  a  healthy  occupa- 
tion to  some  English  cowboys.   At  San  Juan  de  Ulua 

1  Somewhere  Mrs.  Alec  Tweedie  tells  about  the  water-sprite 
Malinche,  saying :  '  Tis  a  pretty  legend,  and  one  of,  oh,  so  many  ! ' 
Yes,  when  Don  Porfirio  was  flying  she  declares  that  *  unarmed  the 
ex-President  descended  from  his  car '  [the  rebels  being  round  about  it] 
'  and  took  part  in  the  engagement.' 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


287 


also — but  I  fear  that  Don  Porfirio  did  not  remember 
this — was  one  Sarabia,  a  youthful  journalist,  a  Madero 
who  had  failed.  You  should  not  take  arms  against  the 
ruler  of  your  native  land — if  you  have  got  no  chance 
of  winning;  and  Sarabia  has  paid  the  penalty  with 
three  years  of  unmitigated  darkness.  When  Porfirio 
arrived  at  Veracruz  he  was  in  the  enjoyment  of  a 
lamp,  and  now  he  has,  of  course,  been  liberated.  .  .  . 
Whatever  may  have  taken  place  at  Acayucan  it  is 
certainly  the  fact,  as  Mr.  Hugh  Pollard  said  recently 
in  the  'Daily  Graphic,'  that  corrupt  officials  have 
sold  large  portions  of  Mexican  land  to  foreign  com- 
panies. The  Indians  living  on  the  land  have  protested, 
but  as  they  could  produce  no  title  deeds — how  should 
natives  have  title  deeds  ? — their  land  has  been  sold 
to  white  companies,  who  in  turn  have  sold  it  to 
ranchers,  who  enclose  the  water  with  wire  fences,  or 
to  agricultural  companies,  who  only  employ  contract 
or  convict  labour.  No  wonder  the  white  man  is 
disliked. 

Illegal  honours1  were  accorded  on  the  31st  May  to 
General  Diaz,  who  should  not  have  heard  the  nation's 
anthem  play  at  his  departure.  And  perhaps  his  old 
companion,  General  Huerta,  was  affected  by  the 
situation  when  he  made  a  speech,  declaring  that, 
whatever  people  might  assert,  these  troops  would 
always  be  at  his  disposal.  '  They  are  the  only  portion 
of  the  country,'  so  he  blurted  out,  4  which  has  not 
gone  against  you.'    The  ex- President,  in  black,  a 

1  How  much  better  was  he  treated  than,  a  hundred  years  before, 
the  Virgen  de  los  Remedios !  This  image,  brought  across  by  Cortes, 
was  the  object  of  much  veneration,  and  was  ultimately,  on  the  out- 
break of  Hidalgo's  movement,  clothed  in  general  officer's  apparel  and 
invoked  as  Patroness  of  Spain.  The  rival  image,  the  Virgen  de 
Guadalwpe,  proved  to  be  the  more  efficient,  and  a  revolutionary 
general  pulled  the  general's  sash  from  off  the  Spanish  Virgin  and 
made  out  a  passport  so  that  she  should  leave  the  country. 


288      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Panama  hat  in  his  hand,  stood  like  a  soldier  on  parade. 
The  soldiers  who  were  facing  the  veranda  of  that 
barn-like,  wooden  house — some  wearing  sandals,  some 
with  shoes,  their  garments  more  or  less  dilapidated — 
were  the  men  who  had  protected  him  at  Tepechualco, 
where  some  sort  of  plan — not  well  matured — was  in 
existence  to  prevent  his  flying  from  the  country  ere 
he  had  disgorged  his  wealth.  6  If  Mexico  should  be 
involved  in  difficulties,  then,*  he  said,  replying  to  his 
grim  old  friend,  General  Victoriano  Huerta, '  then  I  will 
return  with  pleasure.  I  would  place  myself  there  at 
the  head  of  all  the  loyal  forces,  and  beneath  the  shadow 
of  that  flag  I  would  know  how  to  conquer  once  again. 
...  If  the  Fatherland  should  ever  want  my  services, 
then  solemnly  I  undertake,  as  a  gentleman  and 
soldier,  to  be  always  at  the  soldiers'  side  and  under- 
neath their  flag,  so  that  I  may  defend  the  cherished 
soil  of  Mexico  until  I  have  poured  out  my  latest  drop 
of  blood.'  Among  those  who  went  with  him  on  the 
German  boat  was  General  Fernando  Gonzalez,  son  of 
that  Gonzalez  who  was  nothing  but  a  simple  soldier 
and  had  been  preferred  by  Diaz  to  a  hundred  abler 
men,  in  1880,  to  succeed  him,  with  the  subtle  plan  that 
Mexico  should  be  so  smitten  by  the  contrast  as  to  call 
back  in  despair  its  former  President.  Fernando, 
sailing  on  a  German  boat,  had  been  until  a  week  ago 
the  Governor  of  the  State  of  Mexico,  but  had  resigned 
one  day  and  rushed  across  the  mountains  on  his  car  ; 
he  hoped  the  situation  which  he  left  behind  him  would 
be  dominated.  This  Fernando,  when  he  was  elected 
to  the  office  by  the  President — he  used  to  chuckle  as 
he  told  the  story — travelled  to  his  capital,  Toluca, 
on  the  day  of  the  election  by  the  local  Congress.  An 
officious  personage  demanded  whether  Don  Fernando 
had  some  property  or  had  been  born  within  the  limits 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


289 


of  the  State,  and  on  receiving  negative  replies  he  said 
that  it  was  awkward,  as  no  man  could,  by  the 
Constitution,  be  elected  who  should  not  be  qualified 
in  one  of  these  two  ways.  Another  personage  perceived 
that  they  had  got  three-quarters  of  an  hour  before 
election  time  ;  he  speedily  went  out  and  on  behalf  of 
Don  Fernando  bought  a  house.  That  evening,  when 
the  election  had  been  held,  the  house  was  sold  again, 
and  at  a  profit  of  300  pesos.  Tempora  mutantur — I 
hope  that  Don  Porflrio  will  pardon  me  this  Latin  tag — 
for  Diaz  was  constrained  to  steam  away  from  Vera- 
cruz on  board  the  s.s.  '  Corsica  '  in  1875  with  him 
who  afterwards  became  the  President — Gonzalez  pere. 
.  .  .  You  could  not,  at  the  time  and  later,  be  quite 
positive  of  open  roads  for  either  your  own  person  or 
dispatches  out  of  Mexico.  The  prostrate  power 
behind  the  throne,  chief  of  the  cientiftcos,  Rosendo 
Pineda,  tried  with  a  nom  de  guerre  to  steal  from 
Veracruz.  4  But  we,'  so  said  the  4  Daily  Mail,'  '  to  be 
quite  sure  of  getting  good  dispatches,  we  took  the 
precaution  of  securing  Diaz  as  our  Special  Correspon- 
dent.' Was  it  not  a  master-stroke  ?  And  when  the 
searchlights  of  the  fortress  struck  the  s.s.'  Ypiranga'  as 
she  glided  out  into  the  darkness  of  the  gulf,  a  man  was 
seen  close  by  the  rail,  apart  from  other  passengers,  and 
gazing  through  his  glasses.  '  Embittered,'  so  we  read, 
4  and  disappointed  he  may  be,  but  that  he  will  keep 
altogether  to  himself  throughout  the  trip  is  not 
anticipated  by  his  friends.'  The  moonlight  fell  upon 
the  brazen  instruments  which  had  been  playing  at  the 
wharf,  it  fell  upon  the  white  apparel  of  the  peasants 
who  were  clustered  there  behind  the  soldiers.  And 
the  vessel  glided  out  into  the  darkness.  Quickly  in 
the  fort  of  Santiago,  after  having  fired  a  salutation  to 
this  traveller,  the  guns  were  growing  cold,  and  in  the 
u 


290      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


captain's  quarters,  with  a  tropical  rapidity,  the  gar- 
lands of  the  girls  of  Veracruz  were  fading.  So 
departed  from  the  shores  of  Mexico  the  Special 
Correspondent  of  the  '  Daily  Mail.' 

And  so  a  thoroughly  carnivorous  old  gentleman 
had  been  succeeded  in  the  despotism  by  a  water- 
drinking,  undersized,  pacific  vegetarian.  Madero — 
de  la  Barra's  unofficial  adviser — was,  in  fact,  the  Lord 
of  Mexico,  and  if  it  were  not  for  his  opposition  to  the 
re-electing  of  a  President,  one  would  have  reason  to 
consider  with  anxiety  if  he  could  bear  the  strain  of 
adulation  for  so  long  a  period  as  did  Porfirio  Diaz. 
Don  Porfirio,  of  course,  in  1876,  proclaimed  that  he 
would  never  let  himself  be  re-elected  ;  but  there  is  not 
any  Indian  blood  in  Don  Francisco  I.  Madero,  and 
whatever  be  the  virtues  of  the  Indian  he  is  mon- 
strously conservative  :  he  will,  if  it  is  in  his  power, 
destroy  new-fangled  implements  of  agriculture,  seeing 
that  he  likes  the  old  ones  ;  he  will  not  deny  devotion 
nor  centavos  to  a  saint  who  recently  was  deaf  to  him, 
and  whose  wood  image  at  the  time  was  subject  to 
indignities  ;  he  will  not  be  disposed  to  go  from  public 
into  private  life.  The  man  who  made  the  promises  at 
Tuxtepec  was  not  of  purely  Indian  blood,  as,  for 
example,  was  the  daughter  of  a  poor  old  man  who 
was  bewildered  by  the  swift  and  excellent  Canadian 
tramways  of  the  capital.  Half-way  to  Guadalupe,  an 
adjacent  shrine,  the  countryman  was  caught  by  this 
electric  innovation,  both  his  legs  were  torn  from  off 
him,  and  as  he  was  lying  on  the  road  his  daughter 
knelt  beside  him,  stroked  his  head,  and  softly  asked 
him,  1  Papaito — does  it  hurt  you  ?  '  But  there  was 
enough  of  Indian  in  Porfirio  Diaz  to  account  for  the 
resistance  which  he  offered  during  thirty  years  to 
anyone  who  tried  to  pull  him  down.  .  .  .  What  of 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


291 


the  Indians  who  climbed  into  the  temporary  Cabinet  ? 
Emilio  Vasquez  Gomez  and  the  better-known  Fran- 
cisco come  from  Tamaulipas.  They  were  born  to 
poverty,  so  that  the  elder  studied  for  the  law  and 
subsequently  was  enabled  to  support  his  brother, 
who  from  1880  until  1889  was  learning  medicine. 
Four  of  the  five  examiners,  in  March,  bestowed  on 
him  a  white  ball,  and  in  May  the  young  man  beat  the 
fifth  examiner  in  open  competition  for  the  chair  of 
pathology.  He  practised  in  the  State  of  Veracruz  at 
Coatepec,  he  studied  in  some  European  towns,  he 
represented  the  Republic  at  a  Moscow  Congress  and  a 
Congress  of  the  deaf  and  dumb  in  the  United  States. 
He  wrote  a  book  to  prove  how  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  Republic,  in  the  Federal  District,  one  was  only 
offered  a  defective  education ;  he  became  the 
President  of  the  Academy  of  Medicine,  and  then,  in 
April,  1910 — not  having  taken  any  part  in  politics — 
he  was  elected  by  the  anti-re-electionists  to  be  Vice- 
President.  Emilio,  a  week  before,  was  thrust  into 
Belem  because  the  Government  believed  he  was  the 
manager  of  these  elections.  They  accused  him  of 
provoking  what  was,  at  the  time,  undreamed  of — 
Revolution,  and  it  was  November  when  the  brothers, 
like  Madero,  settled  temporarily  in  Texas.  Don  Emilio 
became  the  Minister  of  Gobernacion,  Don  Francisco 
Minister  of  Education.  They  and  other  Ministers  have 
made  mistakes,  but,  to  repeat  the  words  of  Limantour 
on  the  30th  May,  1911 — and  I  fear  he  was  disposed 
to  be  sarcastic — '  these  gentlemen  will  do  a  great  deal 
better  than  we  have  done,  and  I  wish  them  well.' 
Both  the  brothers  suffered  disappointments  in  the 
period  of  de  la  Barra's  Presidency.  Don  Emilio  was 
not  considered  a  good  Minister  because  he  settled 
every  question  out  of  hand  with  a  supreme  indiffer- 


292      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


ence  to  all  red  tape.  If  anybody  told  him,  for  example, 
that  he  had  been  fighting  for  the  Revolution  and  was 

 pesos  out  of  pocket,  Don  Emilio — perhaps  the 

frankest  and  most  sympathetic  person  whom  I  met  in 
Texas — straightway  gave  an  order  on  the  national  ex- 
chequer for  the  money  ;  so  that,  with  Madero's  strong 
approval,  he  was  asked  to  send  in  his  resignation  ; 
thereupon  his  followers  of  the  '  Pure  Liberal '  party 
chose  him  as  their  Presidential  candidate.  He  was 
defeated.  His  brother's  claim  to  be  Vice-President  on 
the  Madero  ticket  did  not  prosper  ;  at  the  National 
Convention,  and  with  the  approval  of  Madero,  he  was 
set  aside  for  Pino  Suarez,  who  is  said  to  have  given 
proofs  of  discretion,  moderation  and  statesmanship 
at  the  Juarez  Peace  Conference.  He  was  for  many 
years  a  publicist  in  Yucatan,  where  he  enjoyed 
general  esteem,  and  in  1909  was  occupying  the 
dangerous  post  of  president  of  the  local  opposition. 
Dr.  Vazquez  Gomez  was  exasperated  by  his  brother's 
fate,  and  as,  by  taking  on  the  leadership  of  what  is 
known  as  the  Central  Anti-re-electionist  Party,  he 
displayed  an  inclination  to  assist  Madero's  enemies, 
it  was  considered  by  the  future  President  that  Pino 
Suarez  would  be  more  adapted  to  be  second  in  com- 
mand, while,  as  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  '  Dr. 
Gomez,'  said  Madero,  '  can  continue  to  lend  great 
service  to  our  party.  I  am  only  sorry  that  he  does  not 
accept  graciously  the  result  of  the  Convention  which 
was  adverse  to  him.'  The  Central  Anti-re-electionist 
Party — which  consisted  of  the  original  Anti-re- 
electionists  who  refused  to  be  merged  in  the  Pro- 
gressive Constitutional  Party,  as  the  followers  of 
Senor  Madero  then  called  themselves — selected  Dr. 
Vasquez  Gomez  as  their  Presidential  candidate. 
Some  have  criticised  Madero  for  appointing  his  own 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


293 


uncle1  Don  Ernesto  to  the  office  held  so  long  by 
Limantour,  and  the  reply  that  Diaz  recognised  the 
competence  of  Don  Ernesto  and  desired  him  to  accept 
this  very  post  is  not  such  a  complete  reply  as  that  the 
foreigners  in  Monterrey,  which  is  commercially  the 
most  important  town  of  the  Republic,  cannot  think  of 
anyone  more  fitted  than  their  fellow-citizen,  the 
banker,  for  the  charge  of  this  portfolio.  And,  by  the 
way,  Don  Rafael  Hernandez,  Minister  of  Justice,  has 
been  criticised,  and  on  the  ground  that  formerly  he 
followed  Don  Porfirio  ;  to  this  the  answer  is  that 
everyone  who  gave  his  service  to  the  State  was  bound 
to  follow  Don  Porfirio,  and  seeing  that  Hernandez 
was  a  man  of  brains  [these  have  since  been  blown 
out  by  some  followers  of  Felix  Diaz  in  the  streets 
of  Mexico] — it  was  more  profitable  that  he  should  be 
utilised  than  that  the  whole  administration  should  be 
drawn  from  that  minority  which  was  Madero's  family, 
or  from  that  scantier  minority  which  was  in  opposition 
always  to  Porfirio  Diaz.  With  regard  to  Manuel  Calero, 
Minister  of  Industry,  '  he  is,'  said  Don  Francisco  I. 
Madero,  '  not  alone  no  member  of  our  party,  but  a 
Porfirista,  and  he  has  been  for  a  long  time.  As  we 
thought  that  he  possessed  ability  to  fill  the  place,  he 
was  appointed.'  And  in  answer  to  some  observations 
by  the  Senor  Vera  Estanol,  ex-Minister,  he  said  that 
'  many  Governors  who  are  not  of  our  party  have  been 
put  in  office  :  the  States  of  Morelos,  Queretaro, 
Guanajuato  and  others  have  executives  that  were  not 
named  by  the  anti-re-electionist  party  ;  the  Governor 

1  And  the  nephew  of  Porfirio  Diaz,  General  Felix  Diaz,  who  was 
chief  of  the  police,  a  man  of  some  ability,  is  not  frustrated  in  his 
efforts  to  become  the  Governor  of  Oaxaca.  He  addresses  to  the 
citizens  a  manifesto,  humorous  in  parts,  on  the  promises  which  oft 
are  made  by  candidates  and  on  the  destiny  of  these  fair  promises. 
Oaxaca  puts  her  faith  in  Senor  Juarez,  Don  Benito's  son,  who  has 
inherited  not  only  a  great  name,  but  likewise  no  great  humour. 


294      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


of  the  State  of  Mexico,  for  example,  I  did  not  even 
know  by  name,  while  the  chief  executive  of  Nuevo 
Leon  is  the  president  of  the  Superior  Court,  and  was 
named  under  the  Diaz  Government.'  As  to  the  task 
they  had  in  front  of  them,  Madero  and  his  friends 
were  under  no  illusion  save  that  which  was  owing  to 
their  youth.  '  Confidence,'  once  said  the  great  Lord 
Chatham,  '  is  a  plant  of  slow  growth  in  an  aged 
bosom.'  The  conditions  were  both  new  and  strange. 
An  electoral  system  had  to  be  contrived  and  put  in 
working  order.  By  the  side  of  these  electoral  colleges 
the  country  stood  in  direst  need  of  numerous 
political  kindergartens.  Mexico's  best  orators  were 
wanted  to  inform  a  people  then  embarking  on  self- 
government  what  are  the  limits  set  to  legislation, 
and  how  time  is  wanted,  even  by  the  most  impatient 
of  us,  to  establish  large  reforms,  and  how — in  Don 
Benito  Juarez'  oft-repeated,  oft-forgotten  words — 
peace  is  the  respect  for  others'  rights.  We  could  not 
prophesy  in  Mexico.  But  while  there  would  be  dangers 
consequent  upon  the  Revolution — peaceable  pursuits, 
divested  of  an  alien  excitement,  would  not  all  at  once 
attract  each  member  of  the  rebel  army  ;  some  of  them 
would  be  reluctant  to  forgo  their  free  cigars  and  drinks 
and  tram-rides,  and  their  swagger,  and  revolvers,  and 
their  double  and  their  triple  cartridge  belts — and 
while  there  would  be  dangers  consequent  upon  the  old 
regime  and  others  of  a  character  more  deeply  founded, 
such  as  the  disintegrating  movement,  we  thought  that 
we  were  not  injudicious  in  believing  that  the  country 
had  a  happy  future,  both  for  natives  and  for  capital. 
Supposing,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  we  said  that  the 
majority  of  Mexicans  would  always  be,  as  often  in  the 
past,  incapable  of  ruling  the  Republic,  State  or  village. 
Yet  the  wrong  they  do  would  be  corrected  or  restrained 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


295 


by  greater  criticism  of  the  Press  and  of  the  National 
Assembly.  .  .  .  '  Soy  Fronterizo,'  says  the  son  of  those 
bleak  uplands  in  Chihuahua  that  sustained  the  Revo- 
lution ;  '  soy  Mexicano,'  says  the  dweller  in  the  central 
valleys,  who  is  more  inclined  to  wait  in  war  and  peace 
until  he  knows  that  his  adventure  will  not  be  too 
speculative;  4  soy  Yucateco,'  say  the  slave  and  the  slave- 
owner of  that  curious  peninsula  which  is  too  busy  to 
pay  much  attention  to  the  rest  of  the  Republic.1  And 

1  In  1848  Yucatan  was  reincorporated  with  the  Mexican  Republic. 
Until  then  and  from  the  time  when  they  were  liberated  from  the 
Spaniards,  these  two  had  not  always  been  united.  After  three  years' 
reluctance  on  the  part  of  Yucatan  they  were  joined  together  in  1824. 
In  1829,  1832  and  1834  their  relations  were  extremely  strained,  and  in 
1840  Yucatan  set  up  an  independent  Republic.  (It  was  in  October  of 
that  year  when  the  '  True  Blue,'  a  British  schooner,  was  seized  by  the 
Yucatecans  for  alleged  smuggling,  and  '  in  insolent  and  peremptory 
terms,'  says  Rafael  de  Zayas  Enriquez,  the  encyclopaedic  patriot,  did 
H.B.  M.  corvette  '  Comus '  cause  the  Republic  of  Yucatan  to  deliver  the 
ship,  to  pay  an  indemnity  of  8000  pesos,  and  to  'swallow  the  outrages.') 
Texas  was  the  foreign  state  to  which  the  Yucatecans  were  attracted. 
In  a  pamphlet  of  1842  (*  Protesta  de  Yucatan  contra  las  violencias  del 
Gobierno  provisorio  de  Mejico '),  we  find  them  declaring  that  the  three 
Texan  warships  were  only  with  them  for  defensive  purposes  and  that 
even  if  they  cruised  off  Veracruz  and  Tampico,  it  was  only  to  observe 
whether  an  expedition  against  Yucatan  was  being  prepared.  By  the 
way,  on  the  title  page  of  this  pamphlet  there  is  a  group  of  American- 
artisans,  agriculturists,  soldiers  and  sailors  underneath  a  flag  on 
which  is  the  word  'Constitution'  (in  English),  while  in  the  clouds 
above  there  is  a  temple  on  whose  architrave  is  the  word  '  Liberty. ' 
Don  Andres  Quintano  Roo,  the  renowned  statesman  and  poet,  was 
sent  on  a  mission  from  Mexico  to  his  native  Yucatan,  in  order  to  in- 
duce it  to  resume  the  old  connection.  After  various  vicissitudes  this 
came  about  in  1848,  when  the  ruling  class  in  Yucatan  was  forced  to 
call  in  the  assistance  of  the  Mexicans  against  the  Mayas,  who  were  in  re- 
volt and  were  taking  a  complete  revenge  for  everything  which  they  had 
ever  suffered  from  the  whites.  The  panic-stricken  Yucatecans  made  an 
offer  of  the  sovereignty  of  their  country  to  the  Spanish  or  the  British 
or  to  any  other  foreign  Government  which  was  prepared  to  send  them 
speedy  and  effective  help.  An  envoy  was  dispatched  to  the  United 
States,  but  James  Buchanan,  the  Secretary  of  State,  would  do  no 
more  than  recognise  Yucatan's  independence.  He  declined  emphati- 
cally to  support  its  annexation.  So  there  was  no  help  for  it  and 
Yucatan,  which  at  this  time  included  Campeche,  was  compelled  to 
come  to  terms  with  Mexico.  .  .  .  But  if  a  non-Yucatecan  were  to  be 
appointed  governor  of  Yucatan  he  would  have  a  situation  as  uncom- 
fortable as  the  Banus  of  Croatia  who  is  sent  from  Budapest. 


296      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


there  is  a  danger  that  in  this  way  the  United  States  of 
Mexico  will  break  into  three  separate  republics.  As  the 
Revolution  terminated  there  was  vast  enthusiasm  for 
Madero.  '  If  I  were  a  poet  I  would  write  poetic  eulo- 
gies,' said  Mr.Elihu  Root;  'if  I  were  a  musician  I  would 
compose  triumphal  marches  ' — to  the  greater  glory  of 
Porfirio  Diaz.  And  there  would  be  many  like  this 
acolyte  of  Mr.  Roosevelt,  eager  to  rejoice  with  him 
who  had  achieved  success.  The  large  majority  of 
Mexicans  would  be  sincere,  because  it  was  a  change 
from  Don  Porfirio' s  prolonged  regime,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  because  it  was  a  change  ;  the  large  majority  of 
foreigners  would  do  their  best  to  seem  sincere,  and  thus 
assist  their  business.  If  it  once  is  bruited  round  the 
world  that  Mexico  is  on  the  eve  of  many  revolutions, 
that  it  will  relapse  into  the  state  of  Honduras  or 
pitiable  Nicaragua  or  mediaeval  Guatemala,  then  the 
work  of  many  years  will  be  undone.  The  confidence 
with  which  most  of  the  foreigners  in  Mexico  regarded 
Don  Porfirio  Diaz  was  needs  outwardly  transferred  to 
one  whom  they  would  willingly  have  shot  a  little  time 
ago  from  motives  of  pure  business.  ...  As  for 
General  Bernardo  Reyes,  the  theatrical  old  hero  of 
the  army — well,  we  were  not  always  told  of  what 
occurred  at  Orizaba — as,  for  instance,  when  a  dozen 
of  the  more  loquacious  mill-hands  were  shot  dead 
in  March,  1911,  and  the  editors  of  all  the  journals 
kept  a  corresponding  silence — but  we  do  know  that  in 
Orizaba,  Reyes,  who  had  been  permitted  to  return, 
embraced  the  revolutionary  chief,  Rafael  Tapia. 
Those  who  were  so  fond  of  dreaming  that  Bernardo 
Reyes  would  assemble  round  his  banner  the  remains 
of  Don  Porfirio 's  army  and  of  the  discredited  political 
machine  perhaps  did  not  realise  as  keenly  as  did 
Reyes  that  the  militarist  day  was  over,  that  the  army 


The  Interregnum. 

From  the  Mexican  Herald. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


297 


had  been  beaten  by  the  nation.  A  proposal  that  the 
army  should  be  merged  in  the  insurgents  for  the 
purpose  of  restoring  order  was,  by  many  critics,  called 
fantastic  and  impracticable.  But  with  Reyes'  help, 
it  was  a  problem  to  be  solved.  The  elevation1  of  the 
lucky  volunteers  above  the  men  who  have  attended 
military  colleges  and  been  promoted  chiefly  by  the  flux 
of  time  is  always  and  in  every  country  much  resented 
by  these  latter.  In  the  United  States,  when  General 
Wood  was  thus  promoted  after  the  campaign  of 
Cuba,  such  a  storm  arose  that  even  now,  from  time 
to  time,  the  darkness  reappears.  And  Reyes,  if  he 
could  have  satisfied  the  rebels  and  preserved  the 
honour  of  his  old  companions,  would  indeed  have 
powerfully  aided  to  upbuild  the  country.  He  had 
long  been  nourishing  a  plan  to  make  the  army 
popular  and  democratic  by  conscription.  Formerly, 
in  easy  times,  he  won  the  adoration  of  his  troops  ; 
and  now  he  prayed  that  during  the  uncertain  times 

1  At  all  events  Don  Agustin  del  Pozo,  rebel  leader  in  the  State  of. 
Puebla,  issued  on  the  20th  of  June  a  statement  saying  that  '  in  several 
newspapers  I  see  they  have  bestowed  on  me  the  rank  and  style  of 
"General."  Our  noble  Army  is  an  institution  which  I  honour  most 
profoundly,  and  this  rank,  I  feel,  is  inappropriate  for  anyone  except 
the  soldiers  who  by  studies  and  a  long  career  have  gained  it,  after 
many  steps,  or  those  who  in  campaigns,  like  Pascual  Orozco,  have 
become  renowned  for  heroism  and  for  military  genius.  But  as  for 
me,  I  am  not  dedicated  to  a  soldier's  life  and  I  was  not  so  fortunate  as 
to  defend  upon  a  battlefield  the  liberties  of  my  dear  country  which  a 
despotism  had  disdained  for  thirty  years  ;  some  trifling  work  I  under- 
took, to  help  the  Revolution  which  was  headed  by  the  liberator, 
citizen  Francisco  I.  Madero,  caused  me  to  be  nominated  chief  of  all 
the  revolutionary  forces  in  the  State  of  Puebla ;  and  when  I  accepted 
this  responsible  and  high  commission  it  was  only  on  account  of 
patriotic  duty  which  demanded  all  my  power  and  the  absence  of  all 
selfish  interest  whatever.  Since  it  may  be  cruel  irony  to  call  a  man  a 
"  General "  when  he  has  got  no  right  to  the  distinction,  I  would  beg 
that  you  do  not  apply  to  me  this  title,  for  I  say  that  I  am  no  more 
than  an  honest  citizen  who  strives  and  hopes,  so  far  as  it  is  given  him, 
to  serve  his  country,  now  that  he  is  called  upon  to  serve.  The 
Revolution  has  been  made  to  conquer  freedom  and  not  military  rank. 
Let  us  abandon  this  and  use  our  energies  to  make  us  free.' 


298      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


he  might  conduct  himself  in  such  a  way  as  to  achieve 
the  admiration  of  the  world.  His  country  in  a  few 
months  had  gone  back  to  where  it  was  some  five-and- 
twenty  years  ago,  for  the  reforms  of  Diaz  often  did 
not  penetrate  below  the  surface.  We  must  judge  the 
former  President  by  the  material  at  his  command, 
if  we  are  ready  to  assume  that  he  availed  himself  of 
all  the  good  his  country  had  to  offer — and  in  that  case 
also  we  acknowledge  that  a  house  deficient  in  founda- 
tions is,  before  aught  else  is  done,  to  be  destroyed. 
Reculer  pour  mieux  sauter — and  with  de  la  Barra, 
Reyes  and  Madero  working  side  by  side,  another  and 
more  stable  house,  employing  certain  features  of  the 
fallen  structure,  was  begun.  A  few  months  would  not 
be  sufficient ;  but  if  five-and-twenty  years  are  wanted — 
then  we  may  lose  hope  in  Mexico. 

New  brooms  sweep  clean,  and  if  Madero  could  not 
make  a  clean  sweep  of  the  devastating  lotteries  and  of 
the  bull-fights — de  la  Barra  had  not  witnessed  such  a 
fight  until,  as  President,  he  was  at  one  which  they 
arranged  to  help  the  widows  of  both  Federal  and  in- 
surrecto  soldiers — yet  Madero  would  assuredly  be  more 
consistent  with  his  old  idealism  than  the  Socialists 
had  been  in  Lower  California,  for  just  600  dollars 
were  sufficient  to  persuade  the  sixty  last  surviving 
Socialists  to  go  their  way.  What  Mexico  requires  is 
not  alone  a  larger  portion  of  the  light :  to  raise,  for 
instance,  the  indigenous  and  varied  people  into  citizens 
of  a  republic.  (While  in  1911  the  debt  of  Mexico  per 
head  was  only  14  dollars,  and  much  less  than  that  of 
Argentine,  the  prosperous  republic  of  the  south  is  in 
the  presence  of  an  infinitely  smaller  native  burden.) 
Mexico  requires  that  ancient  evils  should  not,  in  the 
present  dispensation,  worm  their  way  to  power  again  : 
the  cientiflcos,  who  are  the  shrewdest  of  intriguers, 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


299 


must  have  no  recuperation  as  they  once  had  from 
another  rout.  It  happened  that  in  1897,  when 
Macedo  was  the  President  of  the  Casino  Nacional  and 
the  notorious  Pineda  sat  on  the  committee,  these  and 
other  cientificos  were  dispossessed.  Macedo  grew 
quite  truculent  before  he  would  exhibit  the  accounts, 
although  when  they  were  seen  at  last  his  attitude  was 
not  surprising — for  he  has  a  reputation  as  financier, 
he  was  designated  by  Porfirio  Diaz  to  be  the  financial 
agent  here  in  London.  And  the  plate  of  the  Casino 
was  discovered  in  a  house  of  prostitution  which 
Pineda  patronised.  A  dividend  was  paid  by  the 
Casino  in  that  period — and  that  alone — in  which  the 
cientificos  were  ousted ;  for  when  they  resumed 
authority  this  institution  failed.  What  Mexico 
requires  is  that,  as  Governor  Gonzalez  of  Chihuahua 
said,  there  should  be  no  extension  or  renewal  of 
monopolies.  '  We  shall  not  take  away  the  riches  of  a 
foreigner  who  holds  them  legally,  but  we  are  up 
against  the  Diaz  system  of  the  granting  of  con- 
cessions, with  the  ruinous  emoluments  demanded  by 
our  politicians.  Mexico  has  been  exploited  by  the 
foreigners  for  many  years,  until  the  people,  as  a  whole, 
have  nothing.  (The  industrial  advancement  has  not 
benefited  20  per  cent.)  We  were  on  the  verge  of 
becoming  a  nation  of  paupers,  but  the  special 
privileges  1  shall  be  stopped,  if  we  can  do  so.  Foreign 

1  Let  it  not  be  thought  disingenuous  of  me  if  I  now  quote  from  the 
pages  of  the  'Mexican  Herald.'  But  the  new  regime  enabled  it  to  have 
a  column  which  it  called  '  Free  Speech.'  On  Friday,  June  23rd  of  the 
year  before  last :  '  The  demand  that  a  thorough  investigation  must  be 
made,'  it  said,  '  of  Mexico's  big  business  concerns,  particularly  those 
that  worked  under  Government  concessions  and  with  which  members 
of  the  old  administration  were  directly  or  indirectly  allied,  is  growing 
not  only  among  members  of  the  new  regime,  but  also,  it  seems,  among  the 
business  element  here  in  the  capital.  .  .  .  Forming  themselves  into  an 
organisation  body  for  the  purpose  of  giving  moral  and,  if  necessary, 
financial  assistance  in  the  movement  of  the  new  body  politic  in 


300      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


capital  we  shall  invite,  but  it  must  enter  into  competi- 
tion with  our  own.  Undoubtedly  the  foreigners  who 
profited  so  greatly  by  the  Diaz  system  will  be  hard  hit 
by  the  new  regime,  which  is  determined  to  build  up 
the  country  and  ameliorate  the  sad  condition  of  her 
people.'  [This  Governor  was  executed  summarily 
when  Felix  Diaz  and  Huerta   came  into  power.] 

ridding  this  country  of  graft  and  corruption,  a  committee  of  business 
and  professional  men  is  said  to  be  not  only  contemplated,  but  actually 
launched  in  this  city,  and  is  preparing  to  give  every  assistance  possible 
in  cleansing  the  political,  commercial  and  financial  life  of  the  re- 
public. ' 

On  June  25th,  Francisco  I.  Madero  authorised  the  publication  in  the 
'  Herald  '  of  a  statement  that  it  was  his  purpose  to  investigate  closely 
and  faithfully  the  conditions  of  all  Corporations  which  had  dealings 
with  the  Government,  as  well  as  all  Government  officials  against  whom 
charges  might  be  brought,  based  upon  adequate  evidence  of  corrup- 
tion or  of  wrong-doing.  '  There  has  been  considerable  speculation,' 
said  the  'Herald,'  'as  to  the  reason  why  the  Aguila  company  was 
selected  as  the  first  one  to  be  investigated  by  Madero  agents,  and  an 
explanation  may  be  found  in  the  report  that  has  reached  Madero  to 
the  effect  that  Lord  Cowdray  when  he  left  Mexico  last  April  went  to 
Washington  and  New  York  and,  after  conferences  with  Henry  W. 
Taft  and  John  Hays  Hammond,  induced  Hammond  to  see  President 
Taft  repeatedly  and  urge  upon  him  the  necessity  of  American  inter- 
vention in  Mexico  to  protect  big  interests  here  and  suggesting  the 
probability  that  England  would  intervene  if  the  United  States  did  not. 
It  was  reported  yesterday  that  in  line  with  the  investigation  of  other 
big  companies,  concessions,  contracts  and  methods  of  doing  business 
here  that  Lord  Cowdray's  other  interests  in  Mexico  would  be  included, 
not  only  the  Tehuantepec  railway,  but  his  big  contract  work  as  well.' 
Soon  after  this  Lord  Cowdray,  who  had  hurried  back  from  England 
to  New  York,  was  said  to  be  endeavouring  to  sell  his  oil  interests  to  an 
American  company.  '  The  report  had  it,'  said  the  '  Herald '  on  July 
15,  '  that  there  was  every  probability  that  the  sale  would  be  made  in 
the  near  future,  but  it  may  be  stated  on  good  authority  that  those  who 
are  conversant  with  the  plans  of  the  Maderos  do  not  share  this  belief.' 
It  quoted  from  a  personage  who  was  in  close  touch  with  the  situation 
and  who  said  that  the  Maderos  did  not  wish  American  capitalists  to 
buy  possible  lawsuits  in  Mexico  and  for  that  reason  and  that  alone 
they  were  doing  everything  in  their  power  to  prevent  this  proposed 
sale.  Lord  Cowdray  went  to  Mexico  and  in  the  '  Nueva  Era,'  the 
semi-official  mouthpiece  of  the  Maderos — the  editor,  Juan  Sanchez 
Azcona,  being  the  man  who  was  appointed  Madero's  confidential 
secretary — it  was  written  that  '  after  a  campaign  of  several  weeks 
dedicated  to  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  transfer  his  immense  oil 
properties  in  Mexico  to  the  Texas  Oil  Company  and  the  Gulf  Refining 
Company,  Lord  Cowdray  has  left  New  York  for  Mexico.  .  .  .  Now 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


301 


Foreigners  the  most  benevolent  may  say  that  in 
the  people  likewise  there  must  show  itself  this  good 
determination,  which  has  often  been  to  seek.  And 
with  regard  to  making  it  more  easy  for  them  by 
the  abolition  of  monopolies,  it  seems  to  me,  for 
instance,  that  consideration  should  be  given  to  the 
Monterrey  Iron  and  Steel  Works.  There  is  duty  of  3  J 

it  is  known  by  everybody  in  Wall  Street  that  the  representatives  of 
the  two  companies  mentioned  were  convinced  that  the  oil  concessions 
of  the  Pearson  Company  are  not  a  good  investment  and  that  they  have 
been  advised  by  lawyers  that  the  concessions  are  in  danger  of  being 
revoked  if  put  to  the  test  in  court.  It  is  said  in  Wall  Street  that  these 
two  cientificos  [Landa  y  Escandon  and  Limantour,  who  helped  Lord 
Cowdray,  as  did  others  of  the  discredited  cientifico  group,  to  obtain 
his  colossal  concessions  from  the  Diaz  Government]  have  exercised 
pressure  on  the  American  companies  through  European  financial 
interests  to  persuade  them  to  take  the  oil  properties  of  Lord 
Cowdray.  ...  In  Wall  Street  it  is  said  that  Lord  Cowdray  told 
two  or  three  of  his  associates  there  that  he  would  soon  control  the 
new  Government  of  Mexico  as  easily  as  he  had  that  of  General  Diaz. 
Both  his  friends  and  enemies  in  Wall  Street  (he  has  both)  await  with 
considerable  interest  news  of  the  activities  of  Lord  Cowdray  in  the 
City  of  Mexico.'  When  he  called  upon  Madero,  '  I  assured  him,' 
wrote  the  latter  in  the  '  Nueva  Era,'  '  that  if  he  has  duly  complied 
with  the  respective  contracts  he  has  nothing  to  fear,  as  my  Govern- 
ment will  respect  contracts  and  concessions  which  have  been  formu- 
lated with  the  late  Government  and  which  have  been  effected  in  due 
form  and  in  compliance  with  all  legal  requirements. '  .  .  .  '  That 
Congress,  when  the  present  body  ...  is  succeeded  next  year  by  a 
more  Liberal  Chamber,  may  order  investigations,'  said  '  The  Times '  in 
a  very  interesting  article  on  21st  November,  1911 , 4  is  possible.  But  there 
would  be  much  surprise  if  such  action  lead  to  anything  more  than 
minor  alterations  in  the  terms  of  a  few  concessions  and  perhaps  to  the 
inauguration  of  a  campaign  against  certain  Trusts. '  .  .  .  At  the  fall  of 
Madero's  Government,  in  1913,  Senor  Manuel  L.  Lujan,  agent  to  the 
United  States  of  General  Orozco,  declared  that  when  Senor  Gustavo 
Madero,  brother  of  the  President,  was  in  New  York  he  made  arrange- 
ments with  the  Standard  Oil  Company  to  '  kill '  the  competition  of  the 
Aguila  [Eagle]  Oil  Company  in  Mexico.  Senor  Lujan  directed  the 
attention  of  the  Senate's  Sub-Committee  to  the  fact  that  three  days 
after  the  Madero  Government  was  established  a  Bill  was  introduced 
in  the  Mexican  Congress  annulling  concessions  granted  by  President 
Porfirio  Diaz  to  the  Eagle  Oil  Company.  And  on  17  February,  1913, 
the  New  York  correspondent  of  the  4  Daily  News,'  in  referring  to  the 
reported  resignation  of  Madero  and  succession  of  de  la  Barra,  cabled 
that  '  the  news  was  official,  for  it  came  from  the  British  Legation  and 
was  inspired  by  Lord  Cowdray,  whose  immense  Mexican  interests 
were  backing  the  ex-Provisional  President  [de  la  Barra].' 


302      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


to  5\ 1  cents  Mex.  a  kilo  on  I  beams,  which  in  Liver- 
pool or  Antwerp  cost  say  £7  a  ton  ;  on  rails,  which 
cost  in  England  about  £5  a  ton,  there  is  duty  of  2  J 
cents  a  kilo.  On  a  steel  building  at  about  £18  a  ton 
(laid  down  in  Mexico)  the  duties,  taking  into  account 
the  galvanised  iron  and  the  bolts,  come  to  about  £7 
a  ton  ;  so  that  when  a  man  erects  a  sugar  factory  of 
average  size  it  costs  him  21,000  dollars  Mex.  more 
than  he  should  pay — the  total  cost  being  600,000 
dollars.  It  appears  to  me  that  Mexico  does  not  derive 
an  ultimate  advantage  from  a  tariff  on  the  jute 
productions,  and  the  British  Minister  was  wont  to 
chaff  Lord  Cowdray,  who  in  England  advocates  free 
trade  while  for  the  Orizaba  jute  mill  he  must  have 
protection.  All  the  jute  is  from  Bengal,  and  the 
resulting  sacks  are  more  expensive  than  if  they  could 
be  imported.  When  I  asked  the  manager  for  a 
defence  of  his  position  he  explained  that  1800 
Mexicans  were  given  employment.  But  it  is  extra- 
ordinary, it  is  shameful,  that  for  at  least  three  years 
the  country  has  been  buying  maize  from  Argentine 
and  elsewhere.  Let  the  1800  men  be  put  to  agricul- 
ture. And  as  we  are  on  this  subject  we  encounter 
what  is  Mexico's  most  urgent  need  :  the  need  for 
patriots.  When  the  fraternal  strife  was  over  and  the 
Government  began  receiving  claims  for  compensation, 
there  would  step  into  the  office  Senor  Don  Fulano, 
with  a  business-like  expression.  '  Practically  all  my 
farm  has  been  destroyed.' 

'  Ah,  what  misfortune  !  And  at  how  much  do  you 
place  the  value  ?  ' 

'  Half  a  million  pesos.' 

4  Many  thanks.    Will  you  be  kind  enough  to 

1  The  lower  price  is  for  steel  beams  in  the  rough,  as  they  leave  the 
mill ;  the  higher  price  is  for  beams  cut  to  the  correct  size  and  drilled. 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


303 


come  in  several  days  ?  The  documents  shall  be 
prepared.' 

The  second  conversation,  as  a  rule,  was  not  so  long  : 
4  Here  are  the  documents.  I  trust  that  you  will 
find  them  accurate.  Of  course,  one's  memory  is 
human  and  my  clerks  are  here  to  help  you.  They 
inform  me  that  the  value  of  the  property,  as  you 
assessed  it  for  the  payment  of  your  taxes,1  is  precisely 
20,000  pesos.' 

It  was  not  sufficient  that,  for  Mexico's  salvation,  de 
la  Barra,  Reyes  and  Madero  should  have  striven  with 
united  effort  :  de  la  Barra,  the  most  prudent  diplomat, 
and  Reyes  who  was  like  a  meteor,  and  Madero  who 
was  like  a  star.  The  people  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest  had  so  much  to  learn,  so  many  years  they 
should  forget.  And  it  is  not  enough  if  they  congratu- 
late themselves  for  having  more  than  followed 
Emerson's  advice  to  hitch  your  wagon  to  a  star.  Let 
them  remember  that  the  conduct  of  Bernardo  Reyes, 
opportune  as  it  might  be,  would  possibly  give  way  to 
his  impulsive  nature,  though  one  must  acknowledge 
he  secured  some  victories  against  himself  that  are  a 
marvel,  he  the  hope  of  the  Porfirian  remnant,  of  large 
vested  interests  and  of  a  portion  of  the  beaten  army  ; 
while  Madero — with  a  halo  from  the  field  of  battle — 
sane,  clean-handed,  resolute,  courageous,  was  backed 

1  It  is  worth  recording  that  this  system  which  establishes  the  tax 
on  land  is,  as  it  were,  the  poor  relation  of  the  system  of  New 
Zealand,  and  New  Zealand  prides  herself  on  being,  in  such  things  at 
all  events,  a  good  deal  in  advance  of  other  countries.  There  the 
valuation  is  conducted  by  State  valuers,  and  if  the  owner  is  dissatisfied 
he  may  appeal  to  the  Assessment  Court,  and  if  he  still  believes  that  it 
has  been  too  highly  valued  and  the  valuer  refuses  to  reduce  it,  then  he 
can  require  him  to  purchase  the  property  at  the  assessed  value.  On 
the  other  hand  the  valuer,  if  he  thinks  that  the  Court  has  made  an 
unfair  reduction,  may  require  the  owner  to  consent  to  what  he  con- 
siders a  fair  selling  value  or  else  he  will  purchase  the  property  at  that 
value  on  behalf  of  the  Government.  These  are  two  points  in  the 
*  Valuation  of  Land  Act,  1908. ' 


304      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


up  by  partisans  enthusiastic  and  fanatical,  by  followers 
who  brooked  no  opposition,  and  by  money.  Towards 
October,  when  the  President  was  to  be  chosen,  this 
triumvirate  did  not  continue  to  be  perfectly  har- 
monious. De  la  Barra,  to  be  sure,  went  on  the  even 
tenor  of  his  way  ;  so  shrewdly  had  he  weathered 
all  the  difficulties  of  the  interregnum  that  his  stern 
refusal  to  be  nominated  was  the  cause  of  much  regret, 
not  only  to  the  neutral  men  and  to  the  Catholic  party, 
whose  repeated  efforts  could  not  make  him  change 
his  mind.  It  was  his  business,  so  he  said,  to  see  that 
the  elections  were  conducted  properly,  and  then  he 
would  retire  from  politics.  But  on  some  future  day, 
perhaps,  the  country  would  not  look  to  him  in  vain. 
Madero's  friendly  attitude  to  Reyes,  whom  he  had  been 
once  accustomed  to  hold  up  as  a  mere  slave  of  Diaz 
and  a  firebrand,  this  new  amicable  attitude  was  most 
unpopular  among  the  Maderistas.  They  were  up  in 
arms  against  Madero's  promise  to  have  Reyes  in  the 
coming  Cabinet  as  Minister  of  War.  Then,  driven 
from  the  side  of  Don  Francisco,  Reyes  let  himself  be 
nominated  for  the  Presidency,  but  his  followers  were 
not  so  numerous  as  were  the  Maderistas,  with  the 
consequence  that  there  was  trouble,  and  before  the 
time  for  the  elections  he  was  forced  to  fly  from 
the  Republic.  Thus  Madero,  who  became  the  chief 
executive,  was  not  in  the  preliminary  period  so 
strong  and  so  consistent  as  one  might  have  wished. 
Sometimes  it  is  the  cruel  fate  of  an  idealist  to  be 
idealised  ;  but  if  Madero's  compromise  with  Reyes 
had  the  object  of  alleviating  ancient  sores  and  of 
promoting  general  welfare — after  Reyes  undertook  to 
be  the  opposition  candidate,  Madero  charged  him  in 
a  speech  at  Veracruz  with  having  planned  to  steal 
from  him  the  fruits  of  victory  and  having  acted  as  a 


EL  MODELO  "EMILIANO' 


Zapata. 

From  Multicolor, 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


305 


criminal — no  small  proportion  of  the  Mexicans  ap- 
peared to  wake  up  from  their  blind  idealising  when 
Madero,  by  a  compact  with  the  Catholics,  got  their 
support.  And  when  he  showed  some  weakness  with 
the  miscreant  ex-groom  Zapata,  who  was  terrorising 
the  green  valleys  of  Morelos,  then  the  Mexicans 
began  to  think  of  Don  Francisco  as  a  person  whom 
they  had  not  understood.1  But  when  a  man  is 
President  of  Mexico  it  is  not  requisite  that  he  should 
be  all  things  to  all  voters.  General  Reyes,  in  disguise, 
fled  from  the  country,  and  in  his  turn  settled  down  at 
San  Antonio,  in  Texas.  6  Do  not  think,'  he  wrote  to 
his  adherents,  4  that  the  good  cause  is  not  near  my 
heart.  But  Mexico  is  now  no  longer  safe  for  me. 
Remain,  dear  faithful  followers,  and  fight.'  The 
Governor  of  Texas  charged  him  with  conspiring  to 
foment  a  revolution.  He  and  certain  of  his  followers 
were  then  arrested,  but  the  fiery  old  commander  cried 
that  he  had  never  listened  to  an  accusation  so  absurd  ; 
he  was  a  simple  soldier,  nothing  else,  who  would  fight 
face  to  face  with  anyone,  but  was  not  able  to  defend 
himself  against  intrigue.  Then  he  was  liberated,  and 
a  few  weeks  later  at  Linares  he  surrendered  to  a  body 
of  the  Mexican  police,  admitting  frankly  that  his 
dream  of  a  successful  revolution  would  remain  a  dream. 
6  I  called  upon  the  army  and  the  people,'  so  he  said, 
4  but  none  responded.'  We  could  hope  that,  with 
Madero  as  a  temporary  necessary  despot,  the  Re- 
public would  continue  to  evolve,  and  into  something 

1  It  is  said  that  Madero,  an  ardent  spiritualist,  believed  that 
Zapata's  death  would  be  followed,  on  the  next  day,  by  his  own  Per- 
haps, however,  he  was  influenced  by  humanitarian  motives  in  sparing 
the  brigand's  life.  He  gave  him  a  considerable  sum  of  money  on  the 
understanding  that  his  outrages  against  villages  and  towns  and  trains 
and  plantations  should  come  to  an  end.  But  this  Jacquerie,  with 
60,000  men  at  its  beck  and  call,  survived  Madero.  It  was  a  method 
of  protesting  against  the  inadequacy  of  the  late  President's  Socialism. 

x 


306      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


very  different  from  her  small  southern  neighbours. 
And  in  foreign  policy  towards  Japan  and  the  United 
States,  it  will  be  well  if  she  leaves  well  alone.  But, 
as  we  are  reminded  by  Moliere :  4  Le  monde,  chere 
Agnes,  est  une  Strange  chose.' 

Much  has  been  omitted  from  this  baneful  story  of 
the  Revolution.  I  confess  I  have  not  mentioned  all 
the  plots  against  Madero  and  not  all  the  deeds  of 
violence  which  Mexicans  committed  on  the  foreigners  : 
at  Cuautla,  for  example,  the  emporium  of  Monsieur 
Caire  was  looted  of  its  contents,  save  a  mattress, 
which  did  not  appeal  to  them  and  therefore  it  was 
dragged  into  the  middle  of  the  street  and  burned  ; 
from  the  Hotel  Morelos,  also  of  French  ownership,  the 
looters  even  stole  the  gold-fish  in  the  fountain  ;  they 
compelled  a  Spanish  merchant's  wife  to  kneel  down  at 
their  feet  and  under  penalty  of  instant  death  to  kiss 
the  ground,  while  they  compelled  a  Spaniard  to 
embrace  a  corpse  which  had  been  lying  in  the  street 
and  was  half -decomposed  ;  some  hundreds  of  Chinese 
were  massacred  in  Torreon,  because  the  rebels,  having 
drunk  a  dozen  bottles  of  suspected  brandy  that  were 
in  a  court-room  waiting  for  analysis,  had  breakfast  at 
a  Chinese  restaurant  and  died.  I  have  not  mentioned 
all  the  deeds  of  violence  which  usually  mark  a  so-called 
civil  war.  But  rather  than  invite  you  to  give  ear  to 
an  account  more  dreadful,  I  would  have  this  tale 
regarded  not  so  much  as  a  complete  and  perfect 
history,  more  as  a  drowsy  after-dinner  entertainment. 
He  who  will  provide  you  with  the  perfect  entertain- 
ment must  be  such  another  as  the  splendid  French- 
man, Jean  Froissart,  whose  tale  was  written  for 
this  worthy  object.    Jean  was  infinitely  careful,  and 


DAWN  AFTER  DIAZ 


307 


he  could  not  always  reach  the  scene  of  action  until 
thirty  years  had  flown  away — that  is  indeed  how 
he  secured  the  facts  relating  to  the  fight  of  Crecy — 
and  if  anyone  would  disentangle  all  the  truth  in  such 
a  land  as  Mexico  he  scarcely  could  pretend  to  do  it 
under  thirty  years.  And  meanwhile  I  endeavour,  very 
humbly,  to  sit  on  the  chair  of  this  new  Froissart,  until 
his  arrival.  Then  he  will  be  read,  like  his  great 
predecessor,  for  at  least  five  centuries,  when  it  is 
probable  that  I  am  not  remembered  even  in  a  Mass, 
since  they  are  held — I  quote  from  an  announcement 
in  a  paper  of  the  capital — '  for  the  repose  of  English- 
speaking  dead  who  live  in  Mexico.' 

Dear,  future  Froissart  !  When  you  march  into  the 
heavy  silence  of  the  jungle,  when  you  loiter  in  the  grey 
dust  of  a  cactus  village  to  converse  with  him  who 
placidly  endeavours  to  look  after  school  and  shop, 
when  you  are  taking  counsel  with  a  wizard  child  of 
Montezuma  or  with  the  diluted  children  of  the  merry 
towns,  will  you  consider  that  the  natives  have  a  charm 
so  wild,  so  delicate,  that  one  is  well  advised  to  listen  to 
the  music  of  their  Spanish  tongue  and  also  to  the 
music  of  who  knows  what  winds  which  whistle  in  the 
Sierra  Madre  and  what  dreaminess  of  the  Tabascan 
waters  gliding  darkly  to  the  sea  ? 


CHAPTER  XI 


IN  A  FIELD 

In  a  field,  not  very  far  as  birds  would  fly  from  Mexico 
the  capital,  I  met  Prisciliano  ploughing  with  a  wooden 
plough.  He  came  towards  me,  white  against  the 
greyish  sky,  and  in  the  evening  wind  his  large,  white 
drawers  flapped  like  sails.  He  did  not  hurry,  though 
the  darkness  was  approaching.  Then  I  saw  that  he 
was  middle-aged,  a  weather-beaten  man  ;  he  smiled. 
'  Very  good  night,'  I  said. 

4  That  you  may  pass  it  well.'  He  stood  there, 
leaning  on  the  plough,  and  with  an  undecided  look. 
He  did  not  speak,  but  studied  me  as  thoroughly  as 
if  he  were  a  child. 

And  his  intentions  seemed  to  be  pacific. 

c  Senor,'  he  said,  4 1  should  be  glad  if  you  could 
play  the  flute.  I  have  one.'  He  removed  his  large 
hat  carefully,  and  from  the  inside  he  produced  this 
instrument.  6  It  will  be  good  if  you  can  play,'  quoth 
he. 

So  primitive  a  thing  it  was  that,  as  I  held  it  in  my 
hand,  I  wondered  how  it  could  produce  coherent 
music. 

'  With  permission,'  said  Prisciliano,  as  he  sat  him 
down  upon  a  rock.  He  put  the  huge  sombrero  on  his 
head  again,  so  that  I  who  was  standing  over  him 
could  not  observe  his  face.  He  sat  there  very 
patiently.   How  could  I  disappoint  him  ? 

308 


"We  all  complain  of  the  shortness  of  time."  Seneca. 


Ploughing. 


IN  A  FIELD 


309 


Looking  up  and  down  the  long,  grey  road  I  saw  no 
possible  suplente.  These  in  Mexico  are  people  who 
will  do  things  for  you  when  you  happen  to  be  in- 
capacitated. All  the  deputies,  for  instance,  have 
suplentes,  who  sit  in  the  Chamber,  legislating  when 
the  deputies  are  sick.  The  road  was  edged  with  trees 
that  fluttered  in  the  wind. 

4  It  is  a  pretty  flute,'  said  I. 

4  Ah  !  '  said  Prisciliano.  He  clasped  his  knees  and 
slowly  see-sawed  on  the  rock.  Then  presently  he 
took  his  hat  off,  fumbled  in  it  till  he  found  some 
cigarettes,  and  reached  a  packet  up  to  me.  6  Perhaps 
before  you  start  to  play  ?  '  he  said.  From  his  ex- 
pression one  would  have  imagined  that  I  had  already 
played  to  him  for  several  hours.  I  sat  down  at  his 
side,  and  while  he  held  his  useful  hat  against  the  wind 
I  lit  my  cigarette.  4  With  your  permission  ' — he  had 
borrowed  it  to  light  his  own,  and  then  he  put  it  back 
between  my  lips.  For  some  few  minutes  we  said 
nothing,  but  there  was  a  pleasant  music  in  the  trees. 

4  You  have  been  living  here,'  I  asked,  4  a  long 
time  ?  '   He  was  so  completely  in  the  picture. 

4  I  have  lived  here  always.  ...  I  am  Prisciliano 
Guerra,  at  your  orders.' 

It  was  restful  to  gaze  out  across  the  wide,  brown 
field  to  where  the  mist  was  gathering.  Beyond, 
there  rose  the  dead  volcano  with  the  fingers  of  the 
red-gold  sun  laid  on  the  snowy  peak  of  it.  And 
thus  it  was  as  if  a  blazing  torch  was  lifted  up  into  the 
sky.  The  shadows  underneath  it  were  as  tender  as 
the  sky  ;  they  knew  that  in  a  little  moment  they 
would  overwhelm  the  torch  and  all  its  bravery,  as 
Time  had  overwhelmed  that  other  blaze  of  the 
volcano.  Very  tender  were  the  shadows  as  they 
closed  upon  the  mountain's  glory. 


310      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


My  friend  expectorated.  4  You  are  thinking  that 
one  cannot  live  here  always,'  so  he  said,  '  since  there 
is  naught  that  happens.' 

4  But,  Prisciliano  !  ' 

4  As  for  me,  I  do  not  care,'  he  said.  4  It  does  not 
touch  me.'  And  he  let  a  smoky  column  rise  up  from 
the  corner  of  his  mouth.  It  did  not  live  long  in  the 
wind. 

4  At  all  events,  to  stay  here  for  a  little  time,'  I  said, 
4  would  be  delicious.' 
4 1  am  nothing,  nothing.' 

4  If  it  were  so  peaceful  everywhere  in  Mexico ! '  I  said. 

4  Ah  !  well,'  observed  Prisciliano,  4  the  pulque  does 
a  lot  of  harm.' 

4  It  was  the  Revolution  I  was  thinking  of.' 

4  What  revolution  ?   When  ?  '  he  asked. 

4  Madero's — surely  you  have  heard  of  it  ?  For 
months  it  has  been  going  on,  all  over  Mexico.' 

4  You  speak  the  truth  ?  A  revolution  ?  And  there 
was  some  killing,  tell  me  ?  It  is  sad,'  he  mused, 
4  yes,  very  sad  that  men  will  not  be  satisfied.  You 
do  not  know  the  village  over  there  ?  '  He  pointed 
with  his  hand  to  the  horizon.  4  Pues,  I  have  heard 
things  .  .  .  and,  who  knows  ?  if  I  were  living  in  that 
place  perhaps  I  also  should  not  be  well  satisfied. 
Who  knows  ?  ' 

4  Madero  was  not  satisfied,'  I  said,  4  with  Don 
Porfirio.' 

He  scowled.  4  But  Don  Porfirio,'  he  said,  4  is  Don 
Porfirio.  .  .  .  And  what  succeeded  ?  ' 

4  This  will  all  be  a  Republic  now,  with  free  elections 

and  ' 

4  What  did  he  do  with  Madero  ?  Ha  !  I  see  him 
hanging  from  a  tree,  or  did  they  do  it  in  a  prison  ? 
He  is  very  great,  our  Don  Porfirio.   He  is  the  greatest 


IN  A  FIELD 


311 


man  of  all  the  Republic.  Truly  he  is  a  man.'  Pris- 
ciliano  gazed  at  me  with  some  defiance.  '  Si,  senor,' 
he  said.  ...  4  But  it  is  cold.  I  am  detaining  you.' 

The  fiery  colour  had  all  vanished  from  the  dead 
volcano.  Everywhere  the  same  grey  mist  was  being 
spread  ;  the  last  of  all  the  flame  had  tried  to  find  a 
refuge  in  the  windy  sky. 

Prisciliano  rose.  '  With  your  permission,'  he 
remarked,  '  and  over  there  you  have  your  house. 
But  it  is  cold,  is  it  not  ?  ' 

4  Until  another  time,'  I  said.  4  We  have  been 
talking  much — and  we  have  had  no  music' 

He  put  back  the  flute  inside  his  hat. 

4 1  wish  I  could  have  played  for  you,'  I  said. 

4  Many  times  I  thank  you,'  said  Prisciliano,  4  for 
when  there  is  anyone  who  plays  to  me  I  am  more 
pleased  than  any  drunkard.  I  am  going.'  And  he 
started  with  his  wooden  plough  and  as  if  he  would 
continue  all  the  night. 

He  travelled  down  the  field  with  even  steps, 
apparently  not  looking  to  the  left  or  right.  He  was 
the  very  spirit  of  the  Indian  race — indomitable, 
persevering,  slow.  One  fancied  that  he  had  been 
ploughing  and  would  plough  for  ever,  and  that  if  this 
wind  became  the  voice  of  sirens  he  would  not  be 
interrupted. 

Then  suddenly  he  stopped.  By  this  time  he  was  far 
away,  but  as  the  great  sombrero  moved  a  trifle  one 
could  know  his  head  was  sinking  forward.  Thus  he 
stayed,  a  lonely  figure,  while  the  wind  was  playing 
with  his  flimsy  garments.  Against  the  sombre  back- 
ground of  the  earth  and  air  he  was  a  motionless,  white 
statue.  Yes,  for  he  was  the  belated  statue  of  the 
armies  of  the  soil  that  have  conferred  their  monu- 
ments on  kings  and  captains. 


312      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 

While  the  shadows,  like  a  flock  of  friendly  birds, 
were  gathering  about  him,  at  his  feet  and  on  his 
shoulders,  he  remained  as  if  he  were  oppressed  by 
grievous  or  inextricable  thoughts.  And  then  he 
grasped  the  plough  once  more  and  strode  away  into 
the  darkness. 


In  a  balcony — Madero  and  Huerta. 

"  He  kissed  my  hand,  he  looked  into  my  eyes,( 
And  love,  love  came  at  end  of  every  phrase." 

—Browning  s  "  In  a  Balcony.' 


Vice-President  Jose  Maria  Pino 
Suarez.  see^.su 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   SOUL  OF  SENOR  DE   LA  BARRA 
22nd  February,  1913 

During  the  good  days  of  1911,  when  the  President, 
Porfirio  Diaz,  saw  revolt  on  every  side  and  hurled 
against  it  every  man  (except  himself)  and  all  the 
instruments  which  he  controlled,  it  was  the  task 
of  Don  Francisco  de  la  Barra,  the  Ambassador  in 
Washington,  to  circulate  more  downright  lies  in 
several  months  than,  one  presumes,  he  bargained 
for  when  he  became  a  diplomat.  Sefior  de  la  Barra 
is  a  man  of  education  and  refinement,  he  is  Chilian  by 
origin  and  therefore  something  better  than  the  usual 
Mexican.  So  we  were  very  much  concerned  that  he 
should  thus  endanger  his  immortal  soul  by  uttering, 
and  not  unwittingly,  the  foulest  lies  and  hundreds  of 
them.  Everything  would  soon  be  for  the  best,  he 
said,  beyond  the  Rio  Grande.  .  .  .  On  the  22nd 
February,  1913,  Madero  was  murdered,  and  Senor 
de  la  Barra,  then  the  Foreign  Secretary,  told  the 
countries  of  the  world  that  it  was  owing  to  his  effort 
to  escape  while  he  was  being  driven  from  the  palace 
to  the  Penitenciary.  I  dare  say  General  Huerta  (the 
wealthy  cattle-exporter  who  was  much  opposed  to 
Madero's  land  policy)  and  General  Felix  Diaz,  the 
assassins,  made  a  similar  explanation,  but  they 
(especially  Huerta)  are  merely  Mexican  savages  in 
blue  uniforms,  who  would  be  astonished  if  we  stayed 

3i3 


314      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


to  listen  to  them.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted, 
though,  that  Senor  de  la  Barra's  soul  should  have 
this  grievous  burden  placed  upon  it.  I  am  not  sure 
whether  he  began  to  give  his  explanation  during 
dinner  on  the  Saturday  evening  or  whether  he  waited 
until  after  the  event  had  taken  place  near  midnight. 
Anyhow,  he  seems  to  have  been  quite  impatient 
to  observe  how  the  Legations  had  received  his 
uncouth  lie,  and  so  he  begged  the  diplomatic 
corps  to  give  him  the  honour  of  lunching  with  him 
on  the  Monday.  He  stands  in  need  of  a  considerable 
amount  of  honour.  The  diplomats1  declined  his 
invitation,  saying  that  Madero's  death  and  that  of 
Pino  Suarez,  the  Vice-President,  must  be  accounted 
for.  That  is  why  de  la  Barra  toils  in  the  beautiful 
Foreign  Office — trying,  trying  all  day  long — with  the 
assistance  of  the  Under-Secretary  and  of  the  First, 
Second  and  Third  Introducers  of  Ambassadors,  to  write 
a  story  which  shall  be  considered  plausible.  And  in 
the  meantime,  at  the  palace,  Huerta's  evil  countenance 
is  leering  at  the  stolid  Felix. 

1  During  the  terrible  days  when  Maderistas  and  Felicistas  were  con- 
ducting a  civil  war,  with  artillery  and  sharpshooters,  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  capital,  when  thousands  of  non-combatants  were  killed,  when 
the  doors  of  Belem  were  thrown  open  and  thousands  of  convicts  made 
their  escape  (one  who  had  been  there  for  twenty  years  preferred  to 
stay  and  two  remained  for  several  hours  endeavouring  to  force  the 
prison  safe),  when  the  Zapatistas  plundered  and  assassinated  in  the 
very  outskirts  of  the  city  and  when  the  position  of  the  American 
Ambassador  was  naturally  much  more  arduous  and  much  more 
delicate  and  much  more  perilous  than  that  of  his  colleagues,  then  it 
seems  that  members  of  the  British  colony  complained  both  of  their 
Minister,  Mr.  Stronge,  and  their  Consul-General,  Mr.  Stringer,  and 
their  Vice-Consul,  Mr.  Milne.  The  latter  is  said,  perhaps  not  of  his 
own  free  will,  to  have  vanished ;  Mr.  Stringer  went  no  further  than 
the  Country  Club,  about  eight  miles  from  the  capital,  where  you  can 
play  golf ;  and  the  Minister,  an  elderly  gentleman,  is  said  to  have 
devoted  himself  to  the  care  of  his  parrot,  so  that  many  of  his  com- 
patriots preferred  to  take  refuge  in  the  American  Embassy.  The 
German  Minister  also,  Admiral  von  Hintze,  was  according  to  all 
accounts  most  energetic  and  helpful. 


THE  SOUL  OF  SENOR  DE  LA  BARRA  315 


'  What  are  you  smiling  at  ?  '  says  Felix. 

4  Quien  sabe  ?  .  .  .  It  goes  well  with  us,  dear 
friend,'  says  Huerta. 

Felix  also  smiles  a  little.  4  I  have  got  no  doubt,' 
says  he,  '  that  you  looked  just  like  that  when  you 
received  his  wife  in  audience  and  told  her  that  his 
fate  would  be  decided  by  the  Congress  of  the  nation. 
Huerta,  you  are  splendid  !  ' 

4  We  have  got  the  country  !    Blood  and  iron  !  ' 

4  Yes,  that  is  the  only  way — he  was  unutterably 
weak.  At  Veracruz  when  I  revolted  last  October 
and  he  took  me,  why  did  he  not  have  me  shot  ?  ' 

4  Yes,   yes — I   mean  '     He   stops,    in  great 

embarrassment.  6  By  all  the  saints,  Don  Felix,  I  gave 
no  advice  !  ' 

'  Of  course  not,  compahero !  We  are  friends.' 
Don  Felix  laughs  in  the  most  hearty  fashion. 

'  Never  shall  we  separate,  I  swear  it.  If  I  could,  my 
dear  Don  Felix,  I  would  breakfast  with  you,  I  would 
work  beside  you,  I  would  lunch  with  you,  I  ' 

'  Gustavo  won't  !  ' 

4  Ah  !  '  His  Excellency  glances  at  the  Commander 
in-Chief,  because  he  is  not  sure  if  he  is  sound  on  this 
point.  4  Really,  it  was  needful,'  he  begins,  4  I  would 
not  !  ' 

4 1  don't  blame  you.' 

4  He  was  vile.  He  was  unpopular.  I  thought  it 
quite  a  good  idea  to  have  some  soldiers  hidden  in 
the  restaurant  when  he  invited  me  to  lunch.  Those 
foreign  papers — you  have  seen  them  ?  ' 

4  Don't  be  angry,  my  dear  friend.  What  can  they 
do  ?  It  is  the  Yankees  only  we  must  think  about, 
and  they  have  said  so  often  they  will  come  that  they 
will  never  spoil  my  sleep.' 

6 1  heard  a  little  story  yesterday,'  says  His  Excel- 


316      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


lency  the  Provisional  President.  '  It  happened  in  a 
pulque  shop.  There  was  a  fellow  who  had  drunk  too 
much,  he  shouted  that  he  was  a  champion — soy  un 
valiente.  One  could  hear  him  over  all  the  din,  and 
he  persisted  with  his  boastful  shouting.  Then  some 
other  fellow  elbowed  through  the  crowd  and  stood 
defiantly  in  front  of  him  and  told  him  that  he  also 
was  a  champion — soy  tambien  un  valiente.  He  stood 
with  his  fingers  in  the  arm-holes  of  his  waistcoat, 
and  although  he  swayed  a  little  he  looked  formidable. 
"Now,"  his  whole  expression  seemed  to  say — "now 
what  do  you  intend  to  do  ?  "  The  first  one  smiled 
and  said,  "  Well,  then,  my  friend,  we  are  two 
champions — somos  dos  valientes."  ' 

Madero  lay  dead  and  his  regime  was  over.  It  had 
ended  after  a  pitiless  battle,  which  took  place  in  the 
streets  of  Mexico  City  and  caused  the  death  of 
thousands  and  a  vast  destruction  of  property.  Felix 
Diaz,  having,  with  Reyes,  been  released  from  prison 
by  cadets,  had  held  the  arsenal,  Madero  and  Huerta 
the  palace.  Bernardo  Reyes  was  shot  through  the 
head  at  the  first  onslaught.  And  Madero  was  betrayed 
by  Huerta  to  Don  Felix.  The  Republic  was  again 
beneath  the  despotism  of  a  Diaz  ;  there  was  very 
little  light  and  one  could  say  that  those  who  had 
announced  the  dawn  were  stultified.  Once  more  the 
Government  was  ruthless,  savage  and  implacable  ; 
once  more  the  country  dreaded  it.  '  Freedom  has 
been  won,'  said  Madero  to  an  English  interviewer  a 
few  days  before  his  assassination, '  and  when  the  people 
get  a  little  more  accustomed  to  it  they  will  make  good 
use  of  it,  and  then  it  will  be  ordered  freedom.  Your 
great  essayist  Macaulay  in  his  essay  on  Milton,  shows 
that  "  till  men  have  been  some  time  free,  they  know 
not  how  to  use  their  freedom."  '    But  when  the 


You  are  taken  swiftly 


to  every  part  of  the  capital  and  to  the  most  distant  suburbs  by  the  excellent  electric  trams,  which 
have  two  classes  and  express,  non-stopping  services.    They  have  well-appointed  funeral  cars,  on 
which  the  employees  are  shaved  and  have  their  boots  blacked  free  of  charge.    "  This  traffic,"  says 
Mr.  Percy  F.  Martin,  "  proves  highly  remunerative  to  the  Tramway  Company." 


A  street  in  the  capital,  February,  1913. 


THE  SOUL  OF  SENOR  DE  LA  BARRA  317 


treacherous  Huerta,  whom  Madero  always  had 
protected,  and  General  Felix  Diaz,  whom  Madero 
would  not  execute  at  Veracruz,  when  these  two 
patriots  determined  that  the  reign  of  blood  and  iron 
should  return  and  when  they  saw  with  satisfaction 
that  the  sky  itself  was  shot  with  blood,  they  certainly 
did  not  believe  that  this  had  anything  to  do  with 
dawn.  Well,  I  think  there  will  be  a  period  of  greyness, 
and  that  afterwards  the  day  will  come — and  from  the 
north.  Before  Porflrio  Diaz  and  before  Madero  it 
was  destined  to  surge  up  in  this  way.  What  alone 
was  doubtful  was  the  moment  when  the  darkness 
would  be  dissipated,  and  the  passage  of  Madero  is  the 
cause  why  it  will  go  more  quickly.  It  is  stated 
officially  by  Huerta  and  Felix  Diaz  that  6  from  now 
peace  and  prosperity  will  reign  in  Mexico.'  What 
they  will  not  be  able  to  stamp  out  will  be  the  recollec- 
tion of  Madero' s  honest  and  heroic  efforts,  his  high 
principles,  his  pitiful  endeavour.  For  a  time  the 
Mexicans  will  struggle  with  each  other, "  then  they 
will  struggle  desperately  against  the  United  States, 
and  then  their  country  will  be  known  as  Mex.  (The 
cry  of  '  Mexico  for  the  Mexicans  '  was  heard  a  good 
deal  during  1912.  The  foreign  engine-drivers  on  the 
National  Railways,  to  give  only  one  illustration,  were 
dismissed.  What  then  resulted  was  unfortunate: 
not  only  did  the  native  drivers  strike — and  each  time 
get  what  they  demanded — but  large  numbers  of  the 
locomotives  were  so  treated  that  they  also  struck. )  In 
California  it  is  said  that  there  is  a  considerable  amount 
of  graft,  and  there  are  labour  troubles  which  involve 
the  dynamiting  of  the  office  of  a  newspaper.  But 
California  has  not,  for  a  long  time,  yearned  to  be  again 
a  Mexican  dominion,  as  it  was  till  1848  ;  and  in  a 
century  or  so  this  will  be  more  or  less  the  attitude  of 


318      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Mex.  From  the  days  of  Juarez  this  was  bound  to 
come,  for  he  neglected  his  own  people  and  did  not 
make  Mexico  an  Indian  Republic,  which  would  have 
possessed  a  real  strength.  But  this  was  also  bound 
to  come  from  that  day  when  it  pleased  Almighty  God 
to  make  these  two  be  neighbours. 

No  doubt  it  is  a  part  of  the  great  process  that  a 
quantity  of  blood — and  more  blood — and  of  ink  has 
yet  to  flow.  With  the  Mexicans  it  is  largely  a  matter 
of  personal  ambitions  and  hatreds  ;  some  soldiers, 
for  example,  were  standing  outside  one  of  the  Lega- 
tions during  the  conflict  between  Madero  and  Felix 
Diaz.  6  From  which  side,'  they  were  asked,  are  you 
protecting  us  ?  Are  you  for  Diaz  or  Madero  ?  ' 
'  Pues,  sefior/  they  replied,  6  our  officer  will  be  back 
soon  and  then  we  shall  know.'  The  Mexicans  will 
murder  one  another,  while  Vazquez  Gomez  will 
occasionally  run  a  yard  or  two  across  the  frontier, 
will  exclaim  that  he  is  President,  and  will  run  back 
to  Texas.  Then  the  Mexicans  will  strive  against 
their  fate,  will  do  their  uttermost  to  keep  away  from 
the  Americans  ;  they  will  invoke  the  hatred  of  the 
days  of  Diaz  when  his  interview  with  Mr.  Taft, 
suggesting  secret  treaty  or  agreement,  brought  such 
criticism  on  his  head  ;  they  will  invoke  the  hatred  of 
Madero' s  day,  for  he  was  said  to  be  too  well  disposed 
towards  the  neighbours.  These  on  their  side  will 
resist  with  all  their  strength  the  irresistible.1  Officially 

1  The  Mexican  sociologist,  F.  Bulnes,  writes  in  his  book,  '  L'Avenir 
des  nations  Hispano-Americaines ' :  '  It  is  more  than  probable  that  by 
1980  the  United  States  will  hold  a  population  of  250,000,000  in- 
habitants. They  will  then  scarcely  be  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  this 
population,  and  will  no  longer  be  able  to  supply  the  world  with  the 
vast  quantity  of  cereals  which  they  supply  to-day.  They  will  there- 
fore have  to  choose  between  a  recourse  to  the  methods  of  intensive 
culture  and  the  conquest  of  the  extra-tropical  lands  of  Latin  America, 
which  are  fitted  by  their  conditions  to  the  easy  and  inexpensive 
production  of  excellent  cereals.' 


The  Spot  where  Madero  was  Murdered 

in  the  Muy  Leal,  Insigne  e  Imperial  (very  loyal,  notable  and  imperial)  town  of  Mexico, 
according  to  Charles  V. 


THE  SOUL  OF  SENOR  DE  LA  BARRA  319 


they  will  declare,  like  the  Ambassador  in  Mexico,  that 
the  assassination  of  Madero  was  an  accident ;  they 
will  repeat  to  Europeans  that  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
does  not  call  for  them  to  supervise  the  social  and 
political  morals  of  the  Mexicans  ;  and  they  will  hope 
that  no  Ambassador  will  fall  a  victim  to  Madero' s 
accident  of  being  shot  by  those  who  want  to  set  you 
free.  They  will  acknowledge,  as  the  4  Spectator  '  has 
very  well  put  it,  that  they  may  have  assumed  the 
honourable  position  of  trustee  without  any  means  of 
performing  the  work  of  the  trust.  Logically,  they 
should  either  guarantee  life  and  property  throughout 
the  Western  World  or  should  modify  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  so  as  to  admit  the  co-operation  of  other 
Powers  who  may  be  interested  in  the  affairs  of  Central 
and  South  America.  They  will  be  thinking  of  the 
fate  of  the  Americans  and  Europeans  who  may  chance 
to  be  in  Mexico  when  war  begins  and  they  will  think 
of  all  the  difficulties  of  that  war,  the  tortuous  length 
of  frontier,  the  raiders  who  will  creep  into  the  frontier 
towns,  the  difficulties  of  their  transport  in  a  country 
mountainous  and  desolate,  the  fact  that  200,000 
warriors  will  be  wanted,  and  over  a  period  of  at  least 
two  years,  the  fact  that  all  the  Mexicans  will  be 
united  then.1    Of  course  it  would  be  foolish  to  assert 

1  Maximilian  found  that  in  the  presence  of  a  common  foe  the 
Mexicans  are  not  to  be  divided.  Naturally  it  is  the  Americans  to-day 
who  are  the  only  people  capable  of  causing  such  a  union,  but  the 
natives  of  less  culture  have  the  haziest  ideas  of  what  precisely  is 
the  difference  between  Americans  and  English,  or  between  Americans, 
Dutch,  Germans,  French,  Italians  and  English.  The  Spaniards — for 
whom  they  have  a  term  of  contempt — are  the  only  foreigners  they 
really  can  distinguish,  and  they  usually  do  not  love  them,  for  they 
often  are  usurious  and  haughty  and  they  have  the  lisp.  Otherwise, 
in  time  of  peace,  there  is  no  more  general  hatred  of  the  foreigner 
than  there  was  when  Mr.  Ward,  the  British  Charge  d'Affaires,  wrote 
in  his  very  thorough,  very  interesting  book  [*  Mexico,'  by  H.  G. 
Ward]  that  *  Zacatecas  is  the  only  part  of  Mexico  in  which  I  am 
aware  that,  at  the  end  of  1826,  a  bad  feeling  towards  foreigners  in 
general  prevailed.' 


320      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


that  arguments  which  move  the  Government  and  the 
majority  of  the  Americans  are  not  opposed  by  various 
important  bodies.  President  Madero  could  not  raise 
a  loan  in  Wall  Street,  and  it  was  announced  a  few 
days  after  his  removal  that  the  Huerta  Government 
had  been  successful  in  arranging  for  a  loan  of 
$30,000,000.  It  is  obvious  that,  even  with  the  best 
security,  you  want  much  more  than  a  few  days  to 
regulate  the  mere  formalities  of  such  a  loan.  And 
one  concludes  that  Wall  Street  knew  beforehand  of 
the  coup  d'etat  and  was  in  league  with  the  assassins 
of  the  President.  Even  while  Huerta  was  shelling 
Diaz  in  mock  warfare  and  waiting  for  the  right 
moment  to  betray  Madero,  the  pair  were  probably 
in  communication  with  their  Wall  Street  confederates. 
Wall  Street  is  the  fiscal  agent  of  the  land  and  indus- 
trial concessionaires  of  the  old  Diaz.  Intervention 
means  intervention  for  them.  If  great  financial 
forces  are  in  willing  league  with  these  Mexican 
butchers,  one  can  scarcely  doubt  but  that  they  will 
connive  at  any  crime  in  order  to  back  up  their 
investments  with  American  soldiers.  As  to  whether 
the  Ambassador,  Mr.  Henry  Lane  Wilson,  in  white- 
washing the  murderers  was  obeying  orders  from 
Washington  and  whether  such  orders  were  inspired 
by  Wall  Street  will  possibly  be  ascertained ;  a 
large  number  of  his  countrymen  are  now  demanding 
that  the  truth  be  known.  His  appeal  for  a  more 
kindly  consideration  of  the  murderers  and  his  very 
quick  acceptance  of  the  official  version  of  Madero' s 
death  are  indeed  to  be  regarded  as  an  insult  to 
American  intelligence.  At  the  same  time  one  cannot 
say,  as  yet,  whether  his  Government,  being  reluctant 
to  interfere  (and  voicing  in  this  the  large  majority  of 
the  people),  told  him  to  make  the  best  of  the  fait 


Planning  a  Bombardment  of  the  National  Palace. 

Generals  Mondragon  and  Felix  Diaz. 


The  Minister  from  the  Motherland. 

How  the  Spanish  Minister  went  to  and  fro  in  order  to  patch  up  a  peace  between  Maderistas 
and  Felicistas.    Here  he  is  holding  a  white-handled  umbrella. 


THE  SOUL  OF  SENOR  DE  LA  BARRA  321 


accompli  or  whether  they  have  been  the  slaves  of  those, 
the  American  and  Mexican  financiers,  who  will  not, 
if  they  can  help  it,  let  the  Mexicans  shake  off  their 
slavery.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  Ambassador's  relations 
with  Madero  had  for  a  long  time  been  very  strained, 
that  although  he  was  the  doyen  of  the  diplomatic 
corps  it  was  not  he  but  other  diplomats  who,  towards 
the  end,  communicated  with  Madero,  whereas  on  the 
Sunday  and  Monday  before  Madero 's  fall  General 
Huerta  came  several  times  to  the  American  Embassy. 
However,  Mr.  Wilson  is  a  professional  diplomat, 
having  previously  served  in  Chili  and  Belgium  ;  he  at 
any  rate  had  not  the  personal  connection  with  Wall 
Street  as  had  one  of  his  predecessors,  a  very  impossible 
gentleman,  who  busied  himself  in  securing  the  Pan- 
American  railway  concession  and  in  constructing  the 
line,  what  there  is  of  it,  more  with  an  eye  to  quantity 
(he  obtained  so  much  per  kilometre)  than  to  quality. 

We  hold  that  the  idealist,  Madero,  has  by  no 
means  lived  in  vain,  but  if  we  turn  our  gaze  from 
what  he  brought  into  the  sky  and  look  at  what  he  did 
on  earth,  we  may  confess  that  his  idealism  did  not 
serve  him  well.  He  seems  to  have  forgotten  that  the 
average  Mexican  is  far  less  interested  in  political  ideals 
than  he  is  moved  to  wrath  if  there  is  interference 
with  his  pleasures.  The  firm  attitude  towards  the 
lotteries,  which  if  Madero  could  not  stop,  he  limited, 
was  altogether  different  from  the  usual  policy  of  Diaz, 
who  would  grant  the  governor  of  a  State,  in  many 
instances,  the  sole  right  of  establishing  a  local  lottery  ; 
and  many  people  had  been  hoping  that  Madero  would 
extend  this  right  to  them.  His  gentle  methods  caused 
the  Indians  to  be  insolent,  to  do  less  honest  work  than 
ever  and  to  spend  more  time  in  pulque  shops.  Madero 
could  not  solve  the  land  and  many  other  troubles 


322      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


which  he  had  inherited  from  Diaz,  and  he  was  too 
amiable  to  stop  his  partisans  and  some  of  his  own 
family  from  plundering  the  State.  He  wanted  to  be 
constitutional,  and  therefore  he  was  ineffective.  His 
very  uprightness  was  a  source  of  embarrassment 
among  a  people  saturated  with  the  spirit  of  corruption 
and  without  the  smallest  conception  of  the  meaning 
of  self-government.  6  It  is  the  folly  of  nations,'  says 
the  Abbe  Coignard,  6  to  found  vast  hopes  upon  the 
fall  of  princes.'  People  thought  in  Mexico  that, 
Diaz  having  been  expelled,  earth  would  become  as 
heaven.  That  the  whole  of  the  abuses  under  Diaz 
would  be  instantly  removed  was  no  less  credited 
than  that  the  burden  of  all  Mexicans  would  either 
be  much  lighter  or  would  actually  be  removed  from 
off  their  shoulders.  On  Madero's  side  had  been  the 
animosity  against  Porfirio  Diaz,  and  against  him  was 
the  deep  resentment  which  was  cherished  by  the 
partisans  of  Diaz,  who  contributed  from  Paris  and 
New  York  large  sums  for  any  rebel  movement.  And 
against  him  were  the  clericals,  their  leader  being  de  la 
Barra.  Against  him  were  the  great  landowners  and 
the  larger  part  of  the  Press.  He  was  mild,  so  that  the 
average  Mexican  regarded  him  quite  coldly  ;  when 
this  mildness  left  the  country  in  a  turmoil  then  the 
Mexicans  who  had  supported  him  began  to  fall  away. 
Such  army  officers  and  men  as  still  were  loyal  had 
apparently  no  reason  other  than  the  flattering  praise 
which  in  the  newspapers  and  proclamations  of  the 
Government  was  showered  upon  them  and  which 
they  seemed  anxious  to  deserve.  Madero  disregarded 
all  the  rules  of  Mexico  :  he  spared  the  lives  of  his 
opponents  when  he  had  them  in  his  power.  There 
might  have  been  some  hope  for  him  if  he  had  followed 
this  old  custom,  even  as  Porfirio  Diaz  would  have 


February,  1913  :   The  Spectators. 


THE  SOUL  OF  SENOR  DE  LA  BARRA  323 


certainly  fared  better  had  he  followed  the  advice  of 
a  most  beautiful  young  girl,  the  daughter  of  a  Senator 
and  granddaughter  of  a  very  liberal  President,  whose 
English  education  and  long  residence  in  London  did 
not  stop  her  from  insisting  with  great  eloquence  that 
the  young  orator  and  author,  Francisco  I.  Madero, 
Presidential  candidate,  who  at  the  moment  was  in 
prison,  should  be  killed.1  It  would  appear  that 
Don  Victoriano   Huerta's  party  know  that  such 

1  The  Ley  de  Fuga  [lit.  Law  of  Flight]  enables  the  authorities  to 
rid  themselves  of  those  whom  it  is  inconvenient  to  place  on  trial. 
Sometimes  the  prisoner  is  really  given  a  chance  of  escape ;  for 
instance,  if  he  is  a  spy,  against  whom  there  is  no  particular  resent- 
ment ;  an  attack  is  apprehended  on  the  part  of  his  employers,  and 
perhaps  a  man  could  not  be  spared  to  watch  him.  He  is  therefore 
told  to  ride  away — sometimes  he  is  given  his  choice — and  as  he  darts 
from  side  to  side  the  bullets  whistle  round  him.  Sometimes  the 
prisoner  has  no  chance  ;  for  instance,  when  Porfirio  Diaz  was  about 
to  fall,  a  man  went  round  the  State  of  Aguascalientes,  scattering 
broadsheets  in  favour  of  Madero.  '  We  have  such  disagreeable  work 
to  do,'  said  the  Lieutenant  of  Rurales,  to  an  Englishman.  When 
Mercado,  the  old  Governor  of  Aguascalientes,  was  informed  of  the 
Maderist  he  was  much  distressed.  He  said  that  he  had  always  been 
a  father  to  his  people — Aguascalientes  has  one  school  for  every  3103 
inhabitants — and  now  in  his  old  age  he  was  to  be  disturbed  in  this 
way.  But  he  was  relieved  to  get  a  telegram  from  the  Governor  of 
the  adjacent  State  of  San  Luis  Potosi,  requesting  him  to  have  the 
agitator,  who  had  lately  been  in  San  Luis,  returned  by  train.  The 
Colonel  of  Burales  also  got  a  telegram  from  Don  Porfirio's  private 
secretary,  saying  that  a  man  would  on  the  morrow  make  an  effort  to 
escape  between  two  given  stations ;  this  must  be  prevented.  When 
the  train  on  the  next  morning  was  between  these  stations  it  went 
slowly  and  more  slowly,  while  the  officer  who  was  with  the  Maderist 
urged  him  to  escape.  '  Not  I  ! '  cried  the  Maderist ;  '  I  have  heard  of 
that  trick  long  ago.  Here  I  remain  ! '  And  he  clung  fiercely  to  the 
seat.  The  end  of  it  was  that  the  officer,  assisted  by  the  escort,  pulled 
their  prisoner  away  and  threw  him  out,  so  that  he  rolled  down  the 
embankment,  just  where  the  Lieutenant  and  his  men  were  stationed. 
'  I  was  warned  you  would  escape,'  said  the  Lieutenant.  *  But  they 
flung  me  off  the  train  ! '  cried  the  Maderist.  '  I  am  sorry,  but  you 
have  three  minutes  for  your  prayers,'  said  the  Lieutenant,  and  he 
told  the  Englishman  that  while  his  prisoner  was  saying  them  he  shot 
him  through  the  back.  '  We  have  to  do  such  disagreeable  things,' 
said  the  Lieutenant.  .  .  .  When  Madero 's  Government  was  overthrown, 
we  were  told  that  a  good  many  of  his  numerous  brothers  and  uncles  tried 
to  escape,  but  only  those  were  lucky  who,  with  his  widow  and  his 
father,  managed  to  achieve  a  Cuban  man-of-war  at  Veracruz. 


324      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


indulgence  is  mistaken.  One  of  Huerta's  nephews, 
Senor  Enrique  Zepeda,  knew  that  four  Maderist  ex- 
governors,  who  were  in  the  Penitenciary,  should  die. 
He  took  a  squad  of  mounted  men — this  happened 
after  General  Huerta  had  been  President  about  a 
month — and  he  demanded  of  the  warden  that  these 
four  should  be  produced.  The  warden  would  not 
hand  them  over  and  Zepeda  went  on  to  Belem,  where 
he  requested  that  they  should  deliver  to  him  one 
Gabriel  Hernandez,  ex-commandant  of  Rurales  and 
his  enemy.  In  this  case  he  was  not  denied,  and  when 
Hernandez  was  pushed  out  of  prison  the  squad 
murdered  him  without  delay.  And  then  Zepeda 
had  the  body  placed  upon  a  pyre  and  burned. 
Zepeda' s  friends,  aware  that  foreign  nations  may  not 
know  how  it  is  best  to  treat  one's  captive  enemies, 
asserted  that  Zepedo  was  not  sober.  .  .  .  From  friends 
of  Don  Porfirio  Diaz  I  have  heard — but  whether  it  is 
true  I  cannot  say — that  he  was  anxious  to  destroy 
Madero  when  he  lay  in  prison  at  San  Luis  Postosi, 
but  that  the  beautiful  and  merciful  Senora  Diaz 
begged  him  for  Madero' s  life.  She  prayed  her 
husband  not  to  sully  his  last  years  with  such  a  crime. 
He  told  her,  so  they  say,  that  it  was  policy.  But 
she  insisted  that  he  had  upon  his  head  the  murder 
of  too  many  Mexicans.  And  in  a  day  or  two 
he  is  alleged  to  have  consented,  saying  that  he 
would  not  kill  Madero,  but  that  he  was  much 
afraid  he  would  some  day  repent  this  deviation 
from  his  ordinary  practice.  .  .  .  With  Madero  there 
could  be  no  stable  Government  (although  the  traders, 
manufacturers  and  business  men,  as  opposed  to  the 
concession-hunters  and  the  favourites  of  Diaz,  be- 
lieved that,  on  the  whole,  he  represented  the  best 
chance  of  achieving  this),  and  those  who  think  that 


of  the  church  at  Catnpo  Florido,  from  which  the  Maderistas  dislodged  their  opponents.     Inset  is  a 
portrait  of  the  sole  Felicista  survivor. 


THE  SOUL  OF  SENOR  DE  LA  BARRA  325 


it  is  not  too  late  to  build  up  a  strong  central  Govern- 
ment and  then  improve  the  Diaz  system  will,  I  fear, 
be  disappointed.  Between  1821  and  1876  Mexico 
had  52  Presidents,  2  Emperors  and  a  Regent — not 
4  all  murthered,'  as  Shakespeare's  Richard  II  says  of 
his  fellow-monarchs.  But  it  is  probable  that  the 
Republic  will  be  soon  as  thinly  populated  as  was 
California  in  1848. 


PART  II 
THE  BACKGROUND 


CHAPTER  XIII 

OAXACAS  ROAD  OF  LIFE  AND  DEATH1 

As  the  riders  came  before  the  dawn  across  the  silent 
courtyard  of  the  hacienda  they  could  see  not  all  the 
ring  of  mountains,  but  the  summits  only  which  pro- 
jected from  the  clouds.  There  was  beyond  the 
hacienda  gate  a  world  of  cloud  and  gloomy  peak  and 
stars.  From  this  high  place  it  was  a  matter  of  some 
twenty  leagues  of  trail  to  Tuxtepec  ;  they  wanted  to 
arrive  there  in  the  twilight,  so  they  started  when  the 
gorgeous  forest  underneath  the  clouds  was  growing 
weary  for  the  hours  of  sleep,  the  long  and  painful 
hours  of  day.  This  mountain  path  descended  rapidly, 
the  travellers  rode  in  the  clouds,  and  when  at  last 
there  came  a  rift  in  them  so  that  our  comrades  could 
behold  the  sky  they  saw  one  silver  star  about  to 
vanish  in  a  little  lake  of  blue.  And  for  a  time  the 
clouds  endeavoured  to  be  grim  and  blank,  to  have  no 
dealings  with  their  foe — the  sun.  But  when  the 
childish  fingers  of  the  sun  were  stretched  towards 
them  how  could  they  resist  from  offering  a  store  of 

1  Francis  Latouche,  one  of  the  most  promising  of  literary  men,  was 
killed  in  Paris  by  a  slipping  motor-bus  in  January,  1913.  His 
4  Sonnets  Paiens  '  and  his  '  Antinoiis  "  will  preserve  him  in  the  hearts 
of  those  who  know  when  beauty  is  a  dawn.  He  was  the  private 
secretary  of  the  well-known  critic  Henry  D.  Davray,  who  has  written 
of  him  in  the  '  Mercure  de  France.'  Other  memoirs  have  appeared  in 
French  and  foreign  papers  ;  I  may  also  be  allowed  to  bring  my  tribute, 
since  Latouche  had  published  in  the  '  Revue  Bleue,'  only  four  days 
before  his  death,  a  rendering  of  this  Mexican  sketch.  It  is  a  delicate 
and  exquisite  translation. 

329 


330      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


opalescent  toys  ?  And  when  they  had  been  slain  the 
riders  could  perceive  among  the  tumult  of  gay  vegeta- 
tion here  and  there  a  bamboo  hut,  a  clearing  for  tobacco, 
and  again  the  giants  of  the  forest  with  their  long, 
green  nets  upon  their  shoulders,  gazing  like  so  many 
monstrous  fishermen  towards  the  sky.  At  intervals 
the  path  would  disengage  itself  from  all  those  trees, 
would  mount  an  eminence,  and  you  would  have  before 
you  the  wild  garden  spreading  this  way,  that  way, 
and  assuredly  containing  under  the  fantastic  waves 
of  emerald  a  lonely  town  which  echoed  long  since  to 
the  feet  of  men.  There  was  a  shimmering  haze  above 
the  garden,  and  it  was  the  ghostly  company  of  our 
dead  clouds  ;  ridge  beyond  ridge  they  ran  distracted, 
up  and  up  towards  the  sapphire  dome,  the  pitiless, 
unshadowed  and  unseeing  dome  of  heaven. 

The  forest  was  asleep  :  above  the  tree-tops,  pressing 
down  upon  them,  was  a  canopy  of  sunlight  and  the 
yellow  bells  of  the  convolvuli  which  had  laboriously 
striven  upward  to  that  airy  region,  for  a  wind  to  shake 
the  music  out  of  them,  were  silent.  Underneath  the 
tree-tops  as  the  ribbons  of  the  sunshine  penetrate 
they  build  a  labyrinth,  a  greenish-golden  palace  of 
uncounted  habitations,  with  the  corridors  that 
have  no  end  and  with  the  dazzling  chambers 
lost  in  the  recesses  of  the  leafy  chambers.  Further 
down  it  is  a  world  of  magic,  since  the  more 
mysterious  sunlight  mingles  with  the  rising  vapours 
and  still  further  down  in  the  direction  of  our  friends 
the  riders  even  the  adventurous  sunlight  has  the 
look  of  one  who  yearns  for  sleep ;  the  greyness 
from  the  jungle's  moisture  almost  overpowers  it,  and 
upon  the  walls  of  the  dark  passages  through  which 
the  riders  come  it  scarcely  has  the  strength  to  paint 
the  jasmine  a  dim  golden  hue,  the  liquid  amber  green. 


OAXACA'S  ROAD  OF  LIFE  AND  DEATH  331 


From  such  a  tunnel  they  emerged  on  to  the  bank  of 
the  broad  Rio  Papaloapam,  the  River  of  Butterflies  ; 
they  forded  it,  their  feet  upon  the  saddle,  for  the 
cumbrous  iron  stirrups  were  submerged.  And  when 
at  last  they  reached  the  other  side  they  also  lay  them 
down  to  sleep.  A  bird  which  had  a  sort  of  human 
voice,  the  solitary  creature  that  appeared  to  be  awake, 
sang  from  the  greenish-golden  thicket. 

And  the  riders  in  their  sleep  observed  a  fine 
procession  :  first  a  troop  of  ragged  and  unshaven 
Spanish  cavaliers,  their  helmets  flashing  to  the  sun, 
their  horses  with  reproachful  eyes — the  path  is 
difficult  and  heavy  baskets  are  suspended  from  the 
saddles,  baskets  full  of  golden  idols.  As  the  cavaliers 
advance  they  barely  look  into  the  jungle,  for  it  is  not 
long  ago  since  certain  ambuscaders  had  their  lesson. 
But  behind  them,  with  his  frock-coat  tightly  buttoned, 
walks  the  stern  and  ugly  Zapotec,  the  President  of 
Mexico,  Benito  Juarez.  He  is  thinking  of  the  Spanish 
Church,  and  with  his  stick  he  slashes  at  an  orchid, 
lays  it  low,  and  instantly  there  surges  up  from  the 
amazing  ground  a  multitude  of  red-tongue  orchids. 
Down  the  road  an  ox-cart  rumbles,  taking  back  its 
sodden  inmates  from  a  fair  ;  one  glance  below  the 
awning  tells  you  that  they  are  oblivious  to  the  world, 
but  near  the  cart  a  thinly  bearded,  agitated  person 
strides  along,  declaiming  in  falsetto  how  he  lost  his 
money,  and  the  pale  brown  oxen  flap  their  ears. 
Inside  another  cart  are  several  rotund  matrons, 
loosely  clad  in  white,  exhibiting  to  one  another  little 
sky-blue  spangled  slippers  which — most  wonderful  to 
say — their  feet  can  wear,  and  necklaces  of  twenty- 
dollar  golden  pieces  from  beyond  the  Rio  Grande. 
While  they  puff  at  cigarettes  they  have  their  children, 
three  or  four  years  old,  at  nurse,  and  for  these  latter 


332      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


they  will  vary  the  monotony  by  giving  them  from  time 
to  time  a  smoke.  And  older  boys,  among  them  not  a 
few  with  curly  European  hair,  come  three  or  four  upon 
each  donkey,  beating  it  with  boughs  of  jasmine  or 
with  terrible  bejuco  canes  with  which  the  slaves  are 
flogged  ;  these  urchins  come  back  laden  from  the  fair 
with  imitation  watches  or  with  cloying  sweetmeats 
that  are  generally  eaten  with  their  envelope  of 
newspaper,  and  some  of  them  have  managed  to 
appropriate  a  door-mat  or  a  fascinating  section  of 
barbed  wire,  which  they  temporarily  employ  as 
necklace  ;  some  of  them  stalk  down  the  road  majestic 
in  their  nakedness  and  some  of  these  are  taking  dust- 
baths  with  the  scraggy  chickens.  Afterwards,  a 
wandering  musician,  a  Chatino,  saunters  by  with  his 
guitar,  as  if  it  were  a  child,  upon  his  hip  ;  and  he  will 
sing  heroic  melodies  or  ponderous,  indecent  ones  in  all 
solemnity  and  those  who  listen,  on  their  haunches, 
will  regard  him  with  a  solemn  gaze.  Two  nondescript 
policemen  from  a  hacienda,  with  their  dusty  toes 
projecting  from  their  boots  and  with  an  armoury  of 
weapons  hanging  round  them,  amble  onward  in 
pursuit  of  some  emancipated  labourer,  and  as  they 
ride  they  munch  at  formidable  bars  of  sugar-cane. 
And  then  a  white-clad  bride  and  bridegroom,  hand  in 
hand,  pass  down  the  road.  If  she  had  wanted  to 
conceal  her  charms  she  would  have  ridden,  doubtless, 
in  a  volan  ;  but  she  is  so  happy,  and  her  children  and 
her  children's  children  all  about  her  are  so  numerous, 
and  two  of  them  have  risen  to  the  rank  of  briefless 
barrister  and  to  the  glory  of  a  black  suit  and  a  black 
felt  hat.  These  gentlemen  had  instigated  the  belated 
ceremony,  and  they  kneel  them  down  (upon  their 
handkerchiefs)  with  all  the  humble  members  of  the 
family  before  a  wayside  shrine.   The  two  contracting 


OAXACA'S  ROAD  OF  LIFE  AND  DEATH  333 


parties  had  desisted  from  a  marriage  less  because  the 
fees  were  heavy — one  could  have  it  done  for  two  mere 
pesos — but  because  they  were  haphazard  Mexicans. 
And  presently  a  miscellaneous  crew  of  forty  men 
lurch  down  the  road  with  crimson  blankets  on  their 
shoulders,  for  they  are  from  Mexico's  high  central 
plateau.  They  are  powdered  by  the  glimmering  dust, 
and  yet  there  seem  to  be  as  many  dabs  of  vivid  colour 
on  them  as  upon  the  gory  Christ,  whose  absence  would 
leave  such  a  blank  in  every  church  of  the  Republic. 
Brownish  white  and  crimson,  they  are  enganchados — 
men  who  bring  such  muscle  as  they  have  into  the 
south  :  a  verminous  and  sloping-shouldered,  narrow- 
chested,  skimpily-clothed  crew  of  labourers.  They 
have  engaged  themselves  to  work  for  half  a  year  on  a 
tobacco  finca,  and  they  laugh  to  think  how  during  all 
that  time  they  will  not  have  to  search  for  either  board 
or  lodging  or  a  woman.  Several  pesos  jingle  in  their 
pockets,  and  they  shout  lascivious  jokes  to  Dona 
Pancha  Robles,  who  conducts  them  and  who  gurgles 
at  the  jokes. 

Her  voice  was  that  of  the  peculiar  bird  which  called 
the  riders  out  of  sleep  again.  And  all  the  forest  was 
awakening  for  the  revels  of  the  night.  Across  the 
gliding  river  one  could  hear  the  merry  mocking-bird  ; 
a  rustle  told  one  of  the  birds  and  insects  that  were 
undertaking  once  again  their  functions.  And  a  longer 
rustle  heralded  the  coming  of  Oaxaca's  old  Arch- 
bishop, carried  in  his  chair  by  four  lithe  Indians.  The 
most  illustrious  Senor  Dr.  Don  Eulogio  G.  Gillow,  the 
most  jovial  semi-Irishman,  one  of  the  most  successful 
planters  in  the  country,  is  not  very  much  concerned 
about  the  beautiful  facade  of  San  Jose  in  Puebla,  for 
they  grow  some  of  the  grandest  wheat  in  that  impor- 
tant region.  He  is  smiling  now  because  of  the  reports 


334      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


which  have  been  sent  him  from  his  agents,  and  the 
lovely  beetles  of  the  forest  which  have  lit  their  lamps 
and  whirl  about  his  head  are  not  more  radiant.  And 
along  the  road  to  Tuxtepec  these  tiny  beings  all  of 
light  show  to  the  riders  that  which  otherwise  they 
would  not  see  ;  for  now  the  main  road  has  been  joined 
by  that  one  from  the  Valle  Nacional,  and  in  the  shadow 
of  the  dusky  jungle  one  descries  a  refugee,  a  miserable 
enganchado,  who  was  put  to  work  at  last  among  the 
mountains  so  that  he  should  fly  without  demanding 
his  poor  wages.  Hollow-eyed  and  all  a-tremble 
underneath  his  crimson  blanket,  he  plods  onward  to 
the  town ;  and  further  on  a  second  enganchado  lies,  a 
very  helpless  mass  beneath  the  branches  of  a  patri- 
archal tree.  His  face  is  in  the  shadow,  he  is  dying — by 
the  myriad  little  lanterns  one  can  see  the  paper  which 
he  clutches  :  '  Se  da  su  libertad,'  it  says,  6  a  Manuel 
Garcia'  He  is  free  '  because  he  has  accomplished  with 
his  work  the  term  of  his  contracted  time  in  this 
plantation.  And  this  paper  has  been  given  him  so 
that  he  be  not  stopped  upon  the  road.'  He  vaguely 
moves  an  arm,  because  the  whirring  beetles  now 
appear  to  him  to  be  a  congress  of  the  vultures.  But 
the  luminous,  delightful  insects  dance  around  him  and 
alight  upon  his  matted  locks,  to  chant  the  marvel  of 
a  breathless  beauty  there,  to  stay  as  if  among  the 
tresses  of  a  forest  maiden  they  were  prisoned  in  a 
veil  of  gauze. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

POETRY  IN  MEXICO 

The  other  day,  in  Mexico,  I  penetrated  to  the  rather 
frigid  hall  in  which  the  Library,  the  Biblioteca 
National,  is  housed.  Two  lines  of  tables,  down  the 
centre  of  the  room,  accommodate  the  readers,  and 
behind  them,  raised  on  little  platforms,  are  the  desks 
of  the  officials,  while  behind  these  gentlemen  are 
sundry  giant  statues  made  to  represent  Descartes  and 
Saint  Paul  (in  very  vivid  attitude)  and  Dante  and  the 
rest  of  them.  Behind  these  two  white  rows  of  giants 
are  the  bookshelves  and  some  books.  Unfortunately 
I  began  by  running  counter  to  the  rules,  for  one  of 
those  officials  limped  across  and  pointed  at  my  hat. 
He  did  not  speak  a  word,  and  when  I  pleaded  that  the 
room  was  very  cold,  he  said,  '  Sombrero,1  which  is 
■  Hat.'  He  was  a  puny,  wall-eyed  Indian.  4  But  you 
would  not  desire  that  I  should  take  an  illness  ? 

Nature  has  denied  me  ,'  and  I  showed  him  what  is 

underneath  my  hat.  However,  there  was  no  com- 
miseration on  his  face.  '  Then  you  will  be  respon- 
sible,' said  I.  6  Sombrero,'  said  the  man.  By  this 
time  all  the  readers — eight  adults,  and  two  placid  boys 
who  happened  to  be  chewing  something — all  the 
readers  had  their  eye  on  us,  and  I  perceived  that  this 
convention  of  the  hat  was  generally  followed,  and  the 
fact  that  I  was  sitting  underneath  the  statue  of  Saint 
Paul  had  naught  to  do  with  it.    I  took  my  hat  off, 

335 


336      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


while  the  lame  but  satisfied  official  limped  away.  I 
followed  him  to  ask  if  he  would  get  me  certain  books 
of  poetry.  He  bore  me  no  ill-will.  '  Catdlogo,'  said 
he.  This  catalogue  is  at  the  entrance  of  the  room, 
beneath  the  Humboldt  statue,  and  I  should  not  care 
to  know  what  Humboldt  thinks  of  it.  Although  it  is 
extremely  small  it  baffles  even  those  who  are  in  charge, 
and  my  official  started  at  the  first  page  and  labori- 
ously let  his  black-nailed  finger  move  down  half  a 
dozen  pages.  '  Bring  me  any  one  of  these  four  poets,' 
I  observed.  '  Then  you  had  better  occupy  your  seat,' 
quoth  he.  They  do  not  give  you  ink  or  pen  or 
blotting-pad  or  paper-knife,  and  there  is  nothing 
that  will  serve  for  a  distraction,  save  a  printed  notice 
which  is  put  in  front  of  every  reader.  '  Those  of  the 
readers ' — so  we  may  translate  it — 4  who  are  smokers  are 
entreated  to  be  good  enough  to  make  proper  use  of  the 
spittoons,  so  as  not  to  soil  the  boards  and  to  prevent  a 
fire  which  the  cigar  ends  might  originate.  Equally  they 
are  recommended  not  to  place  cigars,  once  they  are 
lighted,  on  the  tables' 

Well,  at  any  rate  the  library  was  careful  of  its 
treasures,  and  a  functionary  at  the  Foreign  Office  had 
discoursed  to  me  upon  this  topic,  saying  very  plausibly 
that  armies  and  that  navies  do  not  demonstrate  the 
culture  of  a  people  ;  it  appeared  to  me  that  he  was 
anxious  to  belittle  navies,  and  especially  his  own, 
because  forsooth  it  had  transpired  that  many  of  the 
sailors  suffer,  when  they  put  to  sea,  from  Nelson's 
sorriest  frailty,  and  that  a  recent  storm  had  brought 
the  stokers  reeling  on  to  deck  with  exclamations  that 
the  boat  would  founder  since  the  engines  had  begun 
to  roll  about.  They  should  have  known  that  this  was 
not  the  kind  of  thing  to  get  the  better  of  their 
Scottish  engineer,  and  anyhow  the  boat  was  built  in 


POETRY  IN  MEXICO 


337 


Italy.  But  if  the  Foreign  Office  gentleman  disparaged 
navies,  he  was,  like  some  others  of  his  colleagues,  great 
on  poetry.  '  This  demonstrates,'  he  said,  '  our 
culture :  that  we  cherish  poetry.'  And  it  is  not  to  be 
denied  that  they  are  adepts  in  the  Foreign  Office. 
Constantly  while  I  was  making  my  researches  into 
the  Republic's  literature  I  was  advised  to  question 
this  or  that  official  of  the  Foreign  Office,  and  I  never 
went  in  vain.  The  functionary  I  have  quoted  was 
assuring  me  that  Mexico  was  civilised  because  of  the 
attention  which  she  gave  her  poets,  and  I  wondered 
if  she  really  did  preserve  them,  dead  or  living,  so 
religiously.    4  She  slaughtered  Covarrubias,'  I  said. 

'  But  that  was  on  account  of  politics,'  the  function- 
ary answered.  '  No,  they  did  not  shoot  him  dead 
because  he  was  a  poet."1 

Could  it  be,  then,  that  this  land  was  so  exceptional  ? 
Did  she  refuse  to  have  her  poets  wither,  like  so  many 
other  poets,  in  the  shade  ?  I  could  not  instantly 
believe  it,  and  I  went  into  the  library  in  order  that  I 
might  inquire  into  the  lives  of  some  of  Mexico's 
regarded  poets.  As  I  watched  the  wall-eyed  fellow 
toiling  at  the  catalogue  a  feeling  of  oppression  came 
upon  me,  for  it  augured  very  badly  that  in  their 
own  temple  it  should  be  so  difficult  to  find  them. 

1  Senor  Don  Miguel  Covarrubias,  the  respected  Minister  of  Mexico 
at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  tells  me  that  his  cousin  the  poet,  who  like- 
wise was  a  medical  student,  had  a  death  of  a  peculiarly  tragic  kind. 
He  was  shot  and  killed  in  the  course  of  an  affray  at  Tacubaya,  near 
the  capital,  on  the  11th  April,  1859,  while  he  was  in  the  act  of 
amputating  the  leg  of  one  of  the  Conservative  officers.  General 
Leonardo  Marquez,  known  as  the  "  Tiger  of  Tacubaya  "  (cf.  pp.  64,  65), 
and  whose  career  of  cruelty  was  almost  unexampled,  had  command 
of  the  Conservatives.  The  Liberals  (fighting,  we  are  told,  for  en- 
lightenment and  freedom  from  the  thraldom  of  the  Church)  were 
defeated  and  many  of  them  executed,  but  in  so  brutal  a  manner  that 
the  place  was  thereafter  called  La  Ciudad  de  los  Mdrtires — the  city  of 
the  martyrs.  The  anniversary  of  this  battle  is  celebrated  with  great 
solemnity. 

Z 


338      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Surely  my  acquaintance  of  the  Foreign  Office  had 
exaggerated  when  he  said  that  here  they  are  not 
treated  with  contempt.  It  would  be  an  unparalleled 
occurrence  if  the  mention  of  the  name  of  poet  did  not, 
in  the  vulgar  mind,  evoke  indifference  or  worse. 
The  wall-eyed  one  approached  me,  mumbling  that  the 
poems  of  Acuna,  one  of  Mexico's  chief  writers,  were 
not  in  the  library.  Well,  in  a  guide-book  I  had  read 
that  Manuel  Acuiia' s  poems  were  enshrined  in  every 
patriotic  heart  from  El  Paso  to  Yucatan,  so  that  it 
was  possibly  thought  futile,  with  the  space  so  limited, 
to  have  his  book  inside  the  library. 

'  Which,'  I  asked,  '  are  his  best  poems  ?  ' 

'  Quien  sabe  ?  ' 

'  But  you  must  have  an  opinion,'  I  persisted.  4  It 
is  Manuel  Acuna  we  are  talking  of.' 

'  Look  then,  I  would  say,'  replied  this  man,  '  that 
often  they  are  good  and  often  they  are  not  so  good, 
and  often  they  are  quien  sabe  J 

Then,  because  he  had  maybe  more  urgent  business, 
he  abandoned  me.  I  had  wanted  to  read  something 
of  the  poet,  and  in  front  of  me  was  nothing  but  these 
words  :  4  Those  of  the  readers  who  are  smokers  are 
entreated  to  be  good  enough  to  make  a  proper  use  of  the 
spittoons.'  .  .  .  However,  it  was  not  long  ere  another 
of  the  library's  officials,  one  of  higher  standing,  came 
to  have  some  conversation  with  me.  Don  Jacinto 
had  resemblance  to  the  poet  of  the  picture-book  :  his 
shirt  was  ragged  and  it  had  been  blue  ;  his  haughty 
face  was  furnished  with  a  Vandyck  beard  and  he  was 
passing  dirty.  But  he  leaned  upon  my  desk  and 
hearing  that  I  was  in  search  of  poetry  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  utter  one  of  his  unpublished  works.  The 
sound  of  it  was  quite  sonorous  and  he  undertook  to 
give  it  me  in  writing.   As  he  did  not  do  so  I  have  not 


Mexico  the  Land  of  Unrest. 


The  Alameda,  Mexico's  beautiful  park,  in  February,  1913. 


POETRY  IN  MEXICO 


3S9 


been  able  to  translate  it.  On  the  subject  of  Acufia  he 
did  not  desire  to  speak  ;  he  told  me  that  it  would  be 
well  to  go  back  to  the  Foreign  Office.  But  I  hasten 
to  inform  the  lofty  Mexican  officials  who  will  read 
these  lines  that  all  the  subsequent  long  talks  on 
literature  I  celebrated  with  the  functionary  were 
enacted  in  the  Alameda  or  some  other  place,  and  out 
of  office  hours. 

On  a  December  evening  when  our  feet  made  music 
in  the  Alameda's  fallen  leaves,  and  when  the  wind  was 
rolling  through  the  eucalyptus  and  the  yellow  ash 
trees,  it  was  natural  that  we  should  talk  of  Manuel 
Acuna.  In  December,  1873,  on  such  an  evening,  he 
was  walking  with  his  dear  friend,  Juan  de  Dios  Peza, 
and  the  book  which  they  were  reading  was  Hugo's 
6  Les  feuilles  d'automne.'  Presently  Acufia  picked 
a  leaf  up  from  the  ground  to  serve  them  as  a  book- 
mark, and  he  saw  that  it  was  one  which  had  been 
thrown  down  by  the  wind  before  its  time.  He  was 
preoccupied,  but  not,  apparently,  more  sad  than 
usual  when  in  the  street  of  Santa  Isabel  he  left  his 
friend.    "  To-morrow  come  at  one  o'clock,'  he  said  ; 

'  come  punctually.'  '  If  I  should  be  a  little  late  ?  ' 

6  Then,'  said  Acuna,  4 1  shall  go  and  shall  not  see  you.' 
Peza  asked  him  whither  he  was  going.  6  I  am  going  on 
a  journey,'  he  replied  ;  6  .  .  .  yes  ...  a  journey 
.  .  .  you  will  know  about  it  later.'  And  the  words 
fell  on  the  soul  of  Peza  as  if  they  were  drops  of  fire. 
Acufia  left  him  and  he  stayed  for  some  time  in  the 
street,  well  knowing  that  a  chronic  ailment  of  the  poet 
might  be  near  its  crisis.  And  he  went  back  very  sadly 
to  the  Alameda,  which  is  now  a  pleasure-ground 
and  was  the  place  in  which  the  Inquisition  used  to 
burn  its  victims.  As  for  Manuel  Acufia,  he  did  not  go 
to  his  chambers  in  the  School  of  Medicine  till  it  was 


340      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


late.  He  tore  up  and  burned  many  papers.  On  the 
next  day  he  put  all  his  room  in  order,  and  it  is  a 
curious  coincidence  that  Juan  Covarrubias,  the  poet 
who  was  shot  at  Tacubaya,  had  inhabited  this  very 
room  which  in  the  Inquisition  days  had  been  a  cell, 
the  present  School  of  Medicine  having  been  erected 
for  the  Holy  Office.  We  may  quote  a  stanza  from 
Acuna's  poem  on  his  predecessor  : — 

Where  earth  provides  a  meagre  hele 
Your  venerated  shadow  dwells 
And,  weary  of  its  ancient  spells, 
The  broken  harp  that  is  your  soul. 
No  longer  do  the  strings  unroll 
A  song  to  love  or  fatherland, 
But  now  your  cenotaph  is  fanned 
By  wailing  winds  and  by  the  long 
Swell  of  the  greatest  in  your  song  : 
Those  silences  which  understand. 

It  was  the  last  day  of  Acuna's  life.  He  went  out 
to  the  bath.  At  twelve  o'clock  he  came  back  to  his 
room  and  with  a  firm  hand  wrote  these  words  :  6  The 
least  important  matter  is  to  enter  into  details  of  my 
death  ;  but  it  is  nobody's  concern,  I  think.  Sufficient 
if  I  make  it  known  that  I  am  culpable  and  no  one 
else.'  He  went  into  the  corridors,  conversing  casually 
with  his  friends.  And  Peza  reached  the  place  some 
minutes  after  one  ;  a  comrade  had  delayed  him  at 
the  door.  He  found  Acuna  lying  on  his  bed,  as  if 
asleep,  a  lighted  candle  near  him.  He  had  taken 
poison.  Vainly  did  the  doctors  try  to  bring  him  back 
to  life,  but  when  he  lay  in  state  and  the  enormous 
crowd  was  paying  homage  he  appeared  to  weep,  and 
this  may  have  been  due  to  the  embalming  or  the 
tightness  of  his  shroud.  He  always  wept  for  the 
unfortunate,  as  we  may  see  from  '  La  Ramera ' 
['  The  Prostitute  '],  a  poem  that  begins  in  this  way  : — 


POETRY  IN  MEXICO 


341 


O,  pigmy  race  of  man, 

You  that  proclaim  the  truth  and  Jesus  Christ, 

With  many  lies,  pretending  charity  ; 

You  that  have  got  your  heart  inflamed  with  pride, 

Gaze  up,  ah  !  gaze  away 

From  what  is  underneath  your  feet : 

You  that  say  tender  words, 

And  spit  upon  the  gipsy  and  the  beggar, 

And  because  one  is  a  beggar,  one  a  gipsy  ; 

Look,  there  is  that  woman  who  is  grieving,  groaning, 

For  she  has  the  burden  of  the  women 

Who  march  on  through  life,  march  on  through  darkness — 
Spit  there,  too.  .  .  . 

Beside  Acuna's  grave  one  of  the  chief  orators  was 
Justo  Sierra,  whom  the  dead  man  loved  profoundly. 
Sierra's  verses  were  indifferent,  but  he  was  full  of 
humour  always,  laughing  at  the  verses  and  himself. 
He  and  Acuna  had  been  wont  to  look  into  the  distant 
days.  6  What  will  the  world  be  doing,'  sang  Acuna, 
1  with  my  dreams  ?  '  [Que  hard  este  mundo  de  los 
suenos  mios  ?]  Sierra's  dreams,  so  far  as  they  were 
printed,  we  shall  not  repeat,  for  they  were  bad,  and 
probably  the  reason  why  the  President  promoted 
him  to  be  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  was  to 
ascertain  whether  a  bad  poet  would  make  a  good 
Minister.  The  experiment  was  interesting,  and  one 
hoped  that  Don  Porfirio  was  not  discouraged. 

Over  Manuel  Acuna's  corpse  they  uttered  words 
that  should  not  be  allowed  to  die  :  6  The  brain  of 
light,  the  heart  of  fire.'  ...  4  It  is  no  common  mourn- 
ing,' said  another,  4  but  humanity's  despairing  cry  at 
having  lost  a  great  apostle.'  It  was  not  alone  among 
the  literary  men — such  as  the  club  which  he  had 
founded,  the  Netzahualcoyotl — that  his  merits  were 
acclaimed.  All  men  who  loved  a  song  in  Mexico  vied 
with  each  other,  so  it  seemed,  in  loving  Manuel  Acuna  ; 
and  Saltillo  where  he  had  been  born,  Saltillo  the  chief 
town  of  the  inhospitable  northern  State  of  Coahuila, 


342      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


built  a  theatre  and  called  it  after  him.  They  have  a 
splendid  way  of  doing  honour  to  a  man  in  Mexico. 
No  decorations  are  suspended  round  his  neck,  for  it 
is  thought  to  be  undemocratic  to  have  decorations. 
(True,  they  are  willing  to  accept  these  things  from 
foreign  countries,  but  they  do  so,  I  presume,  out  of 
politeness.)  What  prevails  is,  either  in  the  lifetime 
of  the  patriot  or  afterwards,  to  add  his  name  to  that 
of  any  State  or  town  which  may  be  thought  appro- 
priate. Thus,  in  official  documents,  Campeche  is 
entitled  Campeche  de  Baranda  after  a  distinguished 
magnate  of  that  name,  and  if  the  person  to  be  hon- 
oured was,  in  the  opinion  of  his  countrymen,  a  factor 
necessary  to  the  building  of  what  some  of  them 
believe  is  a  Republic,  then  his  name  is  given  pure  and 
simple  to  a  State,  such  as  Hidalgo.  They  did  not 
add  8  de  Acuna  '  to  Saltillo  or  to  Coahuila,  but  they 
built  his  monument,  the  theatre,  in  the  form  of  a  lyre. 
...  So  much  of  reverence  and  admiration  were  his 
lot  that  scarcely  any  favourable  attribute  could  be 
imagined  but  was  fastened  to  his  chariot.  And  one 
really  cannot  blame  the  critics  if  in  their  exasperation 
they  allowed  themselves  to  imitate  the  injudicious 
worshippers,  if  they  rushed  to  the  opposite  extreme, 
if  when  they  saw  that  everything  was  claimed  for 
him  they  did  not,  as  calm  Anglo-Saxon  critics  do, 
permit  the  poet  to  remain  in  undisturbed  possession 
of  his  real  merits.  Not  that  in  the  end  it  matters,  as 
there  are  at  least  two  ways  of  annexing  an  island  :  one 
of  them  is  to  annex  an  island  and  another  way  is  to 
seize  an  archipelago  and  be  content  to  lose  it  all 
except  one  island.  If  all  sublimity  did  not  belong  to 
Manuel  Acufia,  if  at  times  he  was  of  the  materialists, 
yet  we  may  not  describe  him  as  a  hope-forsaken  poet. 
He  had  something  of  the  sublime,  something  of  the 


POETRY  IN  MEXICO 


343 


material,  and  more  of  hope  than  many  of  us.  In  his 
poem  '  Esperanza  '  ['  Hope ']  these  lines  occur  : — 

It  is  the  hour  when  you  should  fain 

Make  for  the  blue  with  haughty  wing  ; 
It  is  the  hour  for  you  to  live  again  ; 

It  is  the  hour  for  you  to  sing. 
Oh,  take  your  torches  that  are  cold, 

Renew  their  pallid  flame,  set  them  above 
Your  altar  and  unlock  the  temple's  gate 

For  one  who  stands  there  in  the  name  of  love. 

Depose,  aye  fling  aside  the  load 
Of  tears,  the  bitter  fruitless  dew, 

And  in  the  gladness  slanting  from  the  sky, 
There  in  the  light  of  solace,  your  abode, 

Salute  the  future  that  awakens  you. 
Now  stand  up  confident  beneath  the  sky, 
No  longer  in  the  gloomy  places  grope  ; 
Bid  the  supreme  farewell  to  sorrow's  state 
And  once  again  with  garlands  decorate 
The  ruins  of  the  altar  of  your  hope. 

Let  suns  invade  your  Night, 

Your  face  let  smiles  begem 
Whereof  the  angels  have  had  ne'er  a  sight 

Since  from  the  cradle  you  did  talk  to  them. 

Perhaps  the  truth  about  him — but  how  can  we 
select  a  better  critic  than  a  Latin-American  of  Saxon 
or  of  Celtic  origin,  Senor  MacDonall  ?  '  If  in  the  search 
for  truth  his  spirit  sometimes  doubted,'  says  Mac- 
Donall, '  he  was  ready  always  to  face  the  world  with  a 
noble,  loving  and  compassionate  heart.  He  was  a 
poet  of  the  heart,  wounded  by  memories  of  childhood. 
His  images  are  novel,  and  his  thought  audacious ;  from 
the  suave  he  leaps  to  the  satiric,  from  the  beautiful 
to  the  jocose.  And  as  in  his  ideas  he  is  advanced,  so 
in  the  form  he  gives  to  them  is  he  courageous.'  He 
has  been  held  up,  in  fact,  to  odium  because  he  does 
not  see  to  it  that  the  ccesura  is  invariably  where  the 
metre  wants  it.  He  was  as  impatient  of  restraint  as 
was  Lassalle,  whom  in  appearance,  with  the  lofty 


344      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


brow,  the  pioneer's  undaunted  aspect,  he  resembled. 
He  was  ever  burning  to  inquire  the  cause  of  things, 
he  pulled  up  by  the  roots  those  artificial  flowers  of 
pietists,  he  doubted.  Here  is  one  of  the  short  poems 
of  the  series  called  '  Dry  Leaves  '  : — 

It  is  your  wish  that  I  believe. 

Ah,  what  else  would  you  have  me  do  ? 
When  I  behold  you  then  I  cleave 

To  God,  for  I  believe  in  you. 

But  if  he  doubted  it  is  very  far  from  true  to  say 
that  he  despised  what  other  men  believe  in  and  respect. 
He  knows  that  if  a  people  have  no  education  they 
do  not  deserve  their  freedom,  they  cannot  be  free. 
He  venerates  the  teacher,  while  he  utters  words  of 
exhortation  for  the  pupil.  Many  of  his  songs  are 
consecrated  to  the  family,  the  home,  to  recollections 
of  early  childhood.  Thus  in  '  Lagrimas  '  ['  Tears  '], 
which  he  wrote  in  memory  of  his  father,  we  may  take 
these  lines  : — 

You  fell  .  .  .  the  parchments  of  the  night 
I  cannot  read  ; 

And  in  the  tomb,  your  dwelling-place, 

I  know  not  whether  love  can  dwell  .  .  . 

I  know  not  if  the  dead 

Can  stretch  their  hands  towards  the  sun  ; 

But  in  the  gloomy  coil 

Of  serpents  prisoning  my  heart 

I  know  that  somewhere  is  a  little  flame 

That  stretches  out  for  you  and  lives  for  you  .  .  . 

I  know  that  of  all  names  the  sweetest  name 

Is  that  I  call  you  by, 

And  you — you  are  the  god  whom  I  adore, 
In  the  religion  of  my  memory. 

The  Foreign  Office  functionary  and  myself  were 
walking  up  and  down  the  Alameda  ;  but  the  evening 
had  faded  quickly  into  night,  as  it  is  wont  to  do  in 
Mexico,  and  where  the  fallen  leaves  had  been  red, 
brown  and  yellow,  they  were  black.    6  And  do  you 


POETRY  IN  MEXICO 


345 


think,'  I  asked,  c  that  Manuel  Acufia  is  remembered 
still  ?  ' 

The  functionary  turned  his  head  and  through  the 
darkness  stared  at  me. 

It  was  twenty-eight  years  from  the  poet's  death, 
and  his  old  mother  in  Saltillo  was  about  to  die.  The 
theatre  called  after  him  had  been  destroyed  by  fire, 
and  she  had  lived  to  see  another  one  erected  in  its 
place,  beside  a  plaza  where  the  trees  are  thickly 
crowded,  and  you  positively  have  to  shout,  so  gorgeous 
is  the  singing  of  the  birds.  This  other  house  was  not 
called  after  Manuel  but  after  the  proprietor,  who 
takes  his  ease  at  sunset  just  outside  the  theatre  and 
listens  to  the  birds. 

6 1  am  very  sad  to  hear  it,'  said  the  functionary. 

But  this  naming  of  the  theatre  was  settled  by  the 
townsfolk.  Many  of  them  voted  for  Acuna  and  a  large 
number  for  the  other  man. 

My  functionary  threw  his  hand  out.  '  Be  so  kind 
as  to  reflect,'  said  he.  '  Saltillo  does  not  own  our  poet. 
And  have  you  forgotten  what  he  says  about  the 
gipsy  and  the  beggar,  whom  so  many  people  spit  on  ? 
That  is  how  the  miserable  place  Saltillo  treats  her 
poet.   What  does  it  matter  ?  ' 

And  I  had  not  forgotten  the  library,  the  Biblioteca 
Nacional,  from  which  the  poet's  works  were  absent, 
and  if  no  attention  was  paid  to  him  a  great  deal  was 
paid  to  the  people  who  spit. 

4  We  have  some  other  parts  of  Mexico,'  said  my 
companion,  '  which  do  greater  honour  to  the  great. 
The  Territory  of  Quintana  Roo,  for  instance,  whom 
is  it  called  after  but  Don  Andres  ?  ' 

4  Who  was  a  statesman.  Every  child  knows  that 
he  fought  against  the  Spaniards  from  his  chair ;  that 
he  presided  at  the  Congress  of  Chilpancingo,  where  the 


346      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


country's  independence  was  declared  ;  that  he  became 
a  deputy,  a  senator,  a  diplomat  and  president  of  the 
Court  of  Justice.   He  did  all  that  for  the  nation.' 

4  Very  well,  and  he  wrote  poems.  Of  course,'  said 
the  functionary,  in  a  tone  of  voice  which  made  me 
listen ;  '  they  were  not  native  poems  such  as  the 
General  Riva  Palacio  recommends.  You  know  the 
General  was  a  good  writer,  and  once,  when  he  was 
satirising  a  friend  of  his,  he  said  that  our  poets  ever 
speak  of  nightingales  and  larks,  gazelles  and  hyacinths 
without  venturing  to  give  place  in  their  doleful  ditties 
to  the  cuitlacoche,  nor  to  the  zentzontl,  nor  to  the 
cocomitl,  nor  to  the  yoloxochitl.  The  poems  of  Quintana 
Roo  are  classic.    Have  you  never  seen  his  portrait  ?  ' 

4 1  would  sooner  see  his  poems.' 

•  He  was  like  an  old  Norwegian  farmer,  stern  and 
steadfast,  only  that  there  was  a  mocking  laugh  about 
his  lips.  And  of  the  poems  which  he  wrote  I  think 
the  best  one  is  the  4  Diez  y  seis  de  Septiembre.'1 
Even  in  a  translation  ' 

And  this  is  what  I  make  of  some  of  it  : — 

'  Of  what  avail  that  in  Dolores  he, 

'  The  unloyal  shepherd,  gave  himself  to  shout, 

'  Forsooth,  for  freedom,  and  the  surging  rout 

'  Of  idiots  echoed  him  so  tediously  ? 

'  The  valour  of  his  ignorance, 

f  The  sacrilegious  valour,  stood 

'  Aghast,  as  it  were  turned  to  wood, 

c  At  seeing  sunlight  on  our  lance. 

'  The  worthless  horde 

'  Delivered  up  their  necks  to  the  avenging  sword. 

'As  when  the  rainy  Pleiads  leap 

( From  out  the  bosom  of  the  sky, 

'  As  when  the  waves  are  driven  high 

'  Which  other  winds  have  rocked  to  sleep, 

1  The  sixteenth  of  September,  on  which  day  in  1810  the  revolu- 
tionary army  started  from  the  village  of  Dolores  under  the  command 
of  Miguel  Hidalgo  y  Costilla,  the  parish  priest. 


POETRY  IN  MEXICO 


347 


'  So  do  the  remnants  of  the  crowd 

'  That  were  full  venturous  recoil, 

e  And  if  our  indignation  boil, 

e  And  if  our  voice  be  loud, 

1  They  recollect  the  awe 

'  Of  Amerigo  when  such  loveliness  he  saw. 

'  Oh,  that  sedition's  lip  to-day 

e  Should  open  for  the  wheedling  word, 

{ This  liberty  that  is  absurd 

'  In  spite  of  its  new-fangled  way  ! 

'  Down  from  the  gallows  tree 

i  It  shall  be  hurried  to  the  indifferent  grave, 

( A  warning  there  to  be 

e For  such  as  would  rebellion  wave, 

'  Aye,  wave  at  the  domain 

'  Whose  building  was  the  work  of  old,  unconquerable  Spain. ' 

So  fiercely  did  the  vandals  cry 
When  that  our  hero,  the  august, 
Was  brought  by  fortune  to  the  dust. 

Father  of  love,  O  sing  what  thou  hast  wrought 
And  which  of  all  thy  toil  was  the  sublime, 
Singing  of  liberty,  so  shalt  thou  climb 
Into  the  spaces  where  death  is  naught — 
Dost  thou  not  see  the  world 
Mourning  the  loss  of  thee, 
Under  the  banner  hurled 
Of  those  who  madly 
Destroying  thee  came 

And  come  now  with  honours  for  thy  sweet  name  ? 

'  So,'  said  my  friend,  '  he  had  an  elevated  style, 
you  see.   He  was  a  good  example.' 

And  perhaps  that  is  why  they  gave  his  name  to 
the  territory.  Judging  from  the  works  that  were 
produced  when  he  was  living,  his  example  was 
essential  to  the  welfare  of  the  country.  Not  to 
mention  more  than  one  of  these,  we  may  pick  some- 
thing from  the  pen  of  Jose  M.  Moreno  y  Buenvecino, 
who  composed  his  fdbulas  with  the  object  of 
censuring  feminine  defects  and  to  give  advice  to 
women.  He  also  wrote  invective  against  the  bad 
poets,  etc.    At  Puebla,  in  1823,  he  published  his 


348      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


4  America  Mexicana  libre,'  an  allegoric  drama  in  two 
acts,  and  in  verse.  The  characters  are  five  in  number, 
viz.  America,  Victory,  Echavarri  and  Moran  (Mexican 
generals),  and  Despotism.  There  is  a  chorus  of  ladies 
and  soldiers. 

But  it  is  deplorable  that  patriotic  verse  should 
sometimes  be  so  bad.  All  writing  cannot  always  be 
spontaneous,  yet  surely  Pegasus  should  not  be 
whipped  when  he  is  on  a  patriotic  errand.  How  was 
Guillermo  Prieto  to  continue  for  a  matter  of  eight 
hundred  pages  and  be  unf atigued  ?  The  heroes  of  the 
Independence  called  to  him,  as  they  were  lying  in 
neglect,  but  he  was  nearly  seventy  years  of  age. 
Hidalgo  and  Morelos  and  their  comrades  had  been 
sung,  indeed,  while  yet  the  noble  blood  was  racing 
through  their  veins,  but  all  the  songs  were  rude,  rough 
numbers,  chiefly  written  by  the  lower  clergy,  and  it  is 
now  many  years  since  even  in  the  mountains  of 
Guerrero,  the  last  refuge,  they  were  lost.  As  for  the 
higher  clergy,  they  in  common  with  the  merchants 
leaned  to  Spain,  and  we  who  look  at  their  activities 
can  hardly  think  that  they  were  instruments  of  the 
Supreme  Wisdom.  Nobody  knows  more  than  we  do 
that  it  is  a  facile  business  to  be  judging  people  after 
the  event,  but  had  we  nourished  at  the  time  we 
surely  would  have  asked  the  merchants  if  it  was 
advisable  to  fight  for  union  with  a  country  which 
prevented  them  from  trading  with  all  other  countries  ; 
temerarious  as  it  may  sound,  we  hope  we  should 
have  asked  the  higher  clergy  if  in  their  opinion  it  was 
prudent  to  have  no  restraint  upon  the  Inquisition  : 
that  enthusiastic  body  charged  Hidalgo  with  com- 
mitting every  crime  it  knew  of — such  as  sorcery, 
seduction  and  polygamy.  .  .  .  So,  too,  the  move- 
ment which  took  place  in  1821  was  not  unanimous 


POETRY  IN  MEXICO 


349 


enough  for  epic  poetry  ;  more  ink  indeed  was  spent 
than  blood,  but  both  of  them  were  doled  out  by  the 
aristocracy.  There  was,  among  the  leaders  of  this 
second  movement,  little  tenderness  for  the  surviving 
champions  of  the  first  revolt.  Quint  ana  Roo  was 
persecuted  and  Guerrero  killed,  and  poets  would  have 
found  it  perilous  to  celebrate  the  days  of  1810.  And 
thus  it  was  until  the  coming  of  the  Emperor,  who 
commonly  is  charged  with  having  been  a  pampered 
person,  one  who  did  not  know  and  did  not  wish  to 
know  the  people's  heart.  In  September,  1864,  he 
solemnised  the  grito,  that  is  to  say  the  war-cry,  of  the 
patriot  Hidalgo  from  the  very  window  in  Dolores,  just 
as  now  the  President  of  the  Republic  celebrates  it 
annually  from  a  window  of  the  National  Palace. 
In  1865  the  Emperor  put  up  a  statue  to  Morelos,  it 
being  his  centenary,  and  he  himself  delivered  the 
oration.  But  unluckily  the  poets  still  refused  to  sing  ; 
they  said  that  they  could  not  forget  how  cruel  and 
how  impious  had  been  the  pioneers.1  If  such  a  stan- 
dard, though,  had  been  erected  by  all  other  poets  we 
should  be  the  poorer  far.  Achilles  dragging  Hector 
three  times  round  the  walls  of  Troy  assuredly  was 
impious,  and  Camoens  did  not  think  that  he  could 
reasonably  be  requested  not  to  write  the  6  Lusiad ' 
because  there  was  some  cruelty  about  the  glorious 
achievements  of  Vasco  da  Gama.  This  hero's 
expedition  was  unpopular  in  Portugal,  as  were  the 
actions  of  Hidalgo  and  his  comrades  in  the  Mexico  of 
Maximilian,  and  I  do  not  put  in  a  claim  that  the  com- 
manders should  be  quite  exonerated  from  the  odium 
attaching  to  the  Guanajuato  slaughter — for  example, 

1  This  is  very  much  the  attitude  of  modern  Mexicans  to  Cortes  and 
his  comrades,  who  are  far  less  popular  than  the  deceived,  humiliated, 
tortured  natives. 


350      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


when  247  defenceless  Spaniards  were  assassinated — as 
the  leaders  of  an  army  are  not  slow  to  take  the  credit 
for  some  gallantry  their  nameless  followers  accom- 
plish, and  they  cannot  have  it  both  ways.  In  1865 
Hidalgo  was  regarded  by  the  poets  as  unclean  ;  in 
1885  Prieto  wrote  the  '  Romancero  Nacional,'  and 
nowadays — thanks  partly  to  Prieto,  partly  to  the 
Latin- Americanism  which  will  either  travel  all  the  way 
or  stop  at  home — Hidalgo  is  regarded  nowadays  as 
something  near  to  the  divine.  Guillermo  Prieto  has  been 
called  the  laureate  of  Mexico,  and  not  because  he  was 
the  greatest  poet  but  the  most  national.  His  '  Musa 
Callejera'  ['Curbstone  Idylls ']  has  preserved  for  us 
the  picturesque  and  lurid  types  of  yesterday.  In  prose 
or  verse  Prieto  was  voluminous,  and  after  toying  with 
a  playful  fancy  he  would  write  upon  finance.  But 
being  old  he  turned  aside  his  steps  from  both  these 
charming  groves,  and  lived  laborious  days  in  order  to 
produce  that  which  a  brotherhood  of  burning  poets 
should  have  given  to  their  country,  a  collection  of 
eight  hundred  pages  of  patriotic  verse.  All  honour 
to  the  man,  who  with  his  white  hair  and  his  lofty  brows, 
his  eyes  that  looked  so  keenly  through  the  spectacles, 
would  have  presented  the  appearance  of  a  German 
savant  if  the  lips  had  been  less  bulky.  Pushing  out 
between  the  small  beard  and  the  cavalry  moustache, 
they  lent  the  lower  portion  of  the  face  a  sensual 
aspect,  while  the  upper  part  expressed  intelligence, 
and  over  both  of  them  there  was  a  veil  of  suffering. 
Eight  hundred  pages  ! — and  the  first  and  second 
poem  seem  to  promise  that  he  will  not  lack  in  vigour, 
since  he  starts  by  telling  Bonaparte  that  he  is  full 
of  infamy  and  guile,  proceeding  to  address  him  as 
'  aborto  del  inferno'  It  is  rather  impious  and  cruel  if 
we  quote  a  weaker  passage  in  the  old  man's  volume, 


-a  ea 


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POETRY  IN  MEXICO 


351 


one  of  those  when  he  was  palpably  fatigued.  So  let 
us  have  it  done  as  soon  as  may  be  and  translate  some 
lines  out  of  the  '  Second  Romance  of  San  Miguel  the 
Great '  :— 

Then  Hidalgo  on  arrival 
Put  up  in  Landeta's  dwelling, 
Ordered  them  to  seize  Isasi, 
As  for  Barrio  to  seize  him. 
In  the  streets  the  military 
Give  themselves  to  creature  comforts, 
And  Hidalgo j  not  maintaining 
Order,  is  charged  with  imprudence. 
But  some  argue  that  with  order 
You  do  not  make  revolutions. 
Some  are  anxious  to  have  fighting, 
But  with  precepts  and  a  compass  ; 
Others  think  that  it  is  easy 
To  command  a  raging  tempest. 
All  of  us  are  good  at  hissing, 
Very  few  will  face  a  bull. 

The  pity  of  it  that  when  Prieto's  pen  was  working  thus 
he  did  not  happen  to  be  occupied  upon  a  dissertation 
in  finance.  But  there  are  many  pages  of  the  patriotic 
volume  that  reveal  the  poet.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a 
passage  from  the  '  First  Romance  of  Guanajuato  '  : — 

Darksome  labyrinths  and  caverns, 
Mountains  tops  and  viewless  valleys, 
Such  are  Guanajuato's  streets. 
And  the  houses  are  suspended 
In  the  sky,  there  is  no  passage 
Forward,  backward  ;  only  two  ways 
Can  you  travel :  up  hill,  down  hill. 
Going  up  hill  you  must  clamber, 
Going  down  the  city  curving, 
Winding,  is  like  such  a  person 
Who  is  ever  undecided 
Whence  to  gaze  upon  a  picture. 

Anyone  who  has  seen  Guanajuato  will  acknowledge 
that  this  is  an  excellent  description.  But  before  we 
take  our  leave  of  the  old  singer  of  the  glories  and  the 
hopes  of  Mexico,  the  popular  and  fertile  poet,  we  must 


352      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


give  as  best  we  can  some  lines  out  of  an  ode  of  his 
that  were  recited  at  a  blind  school  at  the  distribution 
of  the  prizes.  Dealing  with  a  man  who  wrote  so 
much,  and  who  could  sometimes  be  so  flat  as  when 
(resembling  a  notorious  line  of  Wordsworth)  he  pro- 
duced his  Don  Jose  de  Bustamante, 

we  shall  be  more  worthy  of  the  name  of  critic  if,  as 
with  the  English  poet,  we  refuse  to  look  at  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  his  work.  If  these  two  minstrels 
in  their  long,  productive  lives  came  out  into  the  public 
air  at  times  quite  heedless  of  their  singing  robes,  we 
have,  it  seems  to  me,  the  right  to  call  them  both 
ridiculous  if  we  do  not  cut  a  ridiculous  appearance 
with  a  robe  like  theirs  upon  our  shoulder.  We  who 
cannot  build  an  ark  should  have  the  decency  to  turn 
aside  from  Noah's  nakedness.  When  Guillermo 
Prieto  spoke  in  plazas  or  upon  a  hill  they  listened  to 
him  always  with  attention,  and  it  is  unlikely  that  he 
ever  had  an  audience  more  grateful  than  was  that  to 
whom  he  spoke  these  lines  : — 

Ye  orphans  of  the  light,  raise  up  your  heads. 

O  that  a  sun  may  dawn  in  your  uneuding  night ! 

Behold  the  darkness  that  is  furled 

About  you  and  that  seems  to  cling 

To  you  and  to  divide  you  from  the  world  ! 

It  is  a  veil  that  angels  bring, 

With  solemn  mystery, 

To  guard  and  keep  you  free 

From  earth,  to  keep  you  close  to  heaven  where  you  belong. 
Dark  is  the  void 

Wherein  the  orders  of  the  Eternal  roll, 
And  wisdom  august,  unalloyed, 
Even  as  the  sun  illuminates  the  soul. 

Like  to  the  kisses  of  the  dew 
That  sparkle  on  the  lips  of  you, 
Such  is  the  light.    A  delicate  melody, 
The  song  of  children  or  a  dirge, 
They  speak  of  what  shall  always  be 
And  make  the  breast  of  lovers  surge 


POETRY  IN  MEXICO 


353 


With  infinite  content — 

Such  is  the  light.    As  of  a  wandering  scent 

The  mild  caress, 

Or  as  a  dove's  long  lullaby 

That  is  to  lovers  all  the  tenderness, 

As  there  will  reach  into  your  stormy  soul 

A  rumour  of  the  waves  in  play, 

Such  is  the  light  .  .  .  and  those  who  walk  the  way 

Of  man  but  in  a  darker  gloom 

Shall  see  more  clearly  from  their  tomb 

The  light  of  everlasting  day.  .  .  . 


We  have  spoken  of  Prieto  in  connection  with  an 
English  poet.  His  biographer,  Altamirano,  meditating 
on  the  fact  that  literature  did  not  have  to  be  born  in 
Mexico  when  she  achieved  her  independence,  as  the 
art  of  what  they  called  New  Spain  was  subject  all 
through  the  colonial  period  to  conditions  not  so 
different  from  those  prevailing  in  the  motherland,  to 
drive  his  point  well  home  Altamirano  says  that  the 
essentially  American  verse  of  Longfellow  does  not 
differ  from  Chaucer  and  Shelley.   But  although  I  see 
it  stated  that  some  people  have  exceeded  this  Guerrero 
Indian  in  erudition,  he  surpassed  them  all  in  the 
ability  to  hand  on  his  acquirements  to  his  pupils.  He 
was  an  extraordinary  man,  who,  till  the  age  of  fourteen, 
had  no  Spanish.    Of  the  humblest  origin,  he  ranged 
the  woods  of  Tixtla,  stoning  birds  and  fighting  with 
the  species  he  belonged  to.  This  was  not  considered  to 
include  the  Spanish  boys,  los  de  razon  or  seres  de 
razon  [reasonable  beings],  whereas  he  was  one  of  the 
gente  intratable  [intractable  folk].    And  in  the  school 
to  which  he  went  at  last,  the  Spanish  and  the  native 
boys  were  separated  and  were  given  different  instruc- 
tion.   He  was  made  acquainted  with  the  catechism 
and  with  reading,  which  is  more  than  many  of  his 
countrymen  are  taught  to-day,  but  notwithstanding 
is  inadequate.    He  had  to  thank  his  father  for  per- 

2  A 


354      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


mission  to  be  educated  with  the  reasonable  beings, 
for  his  father  rose  to  be  alcalde  and  the  schoolmaster 
was  bubbling  over  with  congratulations  and  was  in 
the  mood  for  granting  this  or  any  other  favour. 
Presently  a  law  was  passed  which  summoned  Indian 
boys  of  application  and  ability  to  have  their  education 
finished  at  Toluca  in  the  Literary  Institute.  He  went 
in  1849,  took  many  prizes  and  became  librarian,  began 
to  write  in  prose  and  verse,  and  was  ejected,  with  some 
others,  on  account  of  being  Liberal  in  politics.  He 
found  a  refuge  in  a  private  college  at  Toluca,  where 
he  gave  French  lessons  in  return  for  roof  and  board. 
And  after  this  began  a  life  of  wandering,  full  of 
vicissitudes  ;  now  he  would  charge  himself  with  teach- 
ing village  louts,  to-morrow  he  would  be  a  dramatist 
(presenting  on  a  small,  provincial  stage  for  one 
performance  his  '  Morelos  en  Cuautla  ' ;  in  response 
to  the  applause  he  thrust  his  head — an  ugly  head  at 
best — out  of  the  prompter's  box),  and  then  retiring 
to  the  mountains  he  was  lost  in  love's  first  (and 
unhappy)  dream.  He  was  secretary  to  Don  Juan 
Alvarez,  that  venerable  firebrand,  most  immaculate 
of  Liberals  ;  and  then  he  came  to  Mexico,  the  capital, 
where,  in  the  college  of  Letran,  he  set  himself  to  legal 
studies.  This  was  in  1857,  and  his  rooms  became  the 
office  of  a  newspaper,  of  a  reforming  club  and  of  a 
literary  group.  He  used  to  listen  in  the  Congress 
while  they  made  the  Constitution  ;  as  he  listened  he 
would  suffer  all  the  gamut  of  despair  and  hope.  And 
all  this  for  the  present  Constitution,  which  is  studied, 
I  presume,  by  students  of  the  history  of  Mexico.  Our 
indefatigable  friend  had  time  to  write  '  The  Bandits  of 
the  Cross,'  in  Alexandrines,  and  to  improvise  with 
Manuel  Mateos,  on  a  fountain's  rim,  tremendous 
verse  against  the  Government.    He  took  himself  off 


POETRY  IN  MEXICO 


355 


to  Guerrero  when  the  war  broke  out,  and  in  4  El  Eco 
de  la  Reforma '  fought  the  clergy  with  his  pen,  while 
with  the  sword  he  was  engaged  in  several  successful 
actions.  He  was  made,  for  his  disinterested  services, 
a  deputy,  and  in  a  celebrated  speech  stood  up  against 
the  amnesty.  This  wild-haired  orator,  a  man  of 
twenty-seven  years,  seemed  terrible  and  menacing. 
He  cried  in  a  storm  of  passion  for  the  punishment  of 
two  of  the  enemy,  4  whose  skulls  should  now  be  white 
upon  their  staff.'  About  this  time  he  wrote  '  Las 
Amapolas '  ['The  Poppies'],  wherein  a  youth  gives 
such  a  charming  picture  of  the  scenery  that  she  who 
listens  to  him  merely  answers  with  a  smile  : — 

All  the  world  is  sighing,  sighing, 

It  is  in  a  languid  case, 
Drowsily  the  world  is  lying, 
Bird  and  wave  and  wind  are  dying 

In  the  desolated  place. 

Now  the  butterflies  do  keep 

To  the  river-bank,  their  bed  ; 
Roses  fold  themselves  in  sleep, 
While  the  shadows  love  to  creep 

Round  each  rosy,  hanging  head. 

Now  the  floripondios  fainting 

Beg  the  mango  trees  for  shade, 
But  the  cruel  sun  is  tainting 
Green  woods  with  her  yellow  painting, 

Woods  of  lime  and  myrtle  made. 

See,  the  poppies  are  so  white 

From  the  poniards  of  the  sun, 
Yet  they  will  be  clothed  in  light, 
They  bathe  where  crystals  taking  flight, 

Across  the  sleepy  waters  run. 

The  boy  who  speaks  these  words  and  she  who  listens 
lose  themselves  among  the  palms  and  come  out  as 
the  day  is  fading  : — 


356      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


All  in  the  tranquil  eve 
Returns  again  to  life  ; 
Amid  the  merry  noises 
Of  the  south  wind  rushing  past 
One  hears  harmonious  music 
Of  the  waves  that  rise  and  fall. 

'  I  am  a  son  of  the  mountains  of  the  south  and  I 
descend,'  the  poet  cried — his  audience  of  deputies  was 
trembling — '  I  descend  from  those  old  men  of  iron 
who  preferred  to  live  on  roots  and  dwell  amid  the 
savage  animals  than  to  incline  their  brow  before  the 
tyrants.  ...  I  have  not  come  here  to  bargain  with 
reactionaries  or  to  grow  more  mild  amid  the  softness 
of  the  capital.'  His  fame  was  in  all  people's  mouth. 
This  Danton  of  America  was  banished,  since  his  fiery 
eloquence  proved  too  exciting  for  the  citizens.  He 
took  part,  as  a  colonel,  in  the  War  of  Intervention. 
Thus  he  gained  a  victory  in  1866  at  Tierra  Blanca, 
when  he  took  a  convoy  and  three  hundred  prisoners. 
A  few  days  later  he  inflicted  a  defeat  upon  Carranza, 
the  imperialist.  He  won  much  glory,  so  they  tell  us, 
at  Queretaro  in  1867,  and  he  was  hailed  in  the 
dispatches  as  a  hero.  When  the  war  was  over  he 
established,  with  his  pay,  a  newspaper,  '  El  Correo  de 
Mexico,'  and  subsequently  about  five  other  papers. 
He  was  president  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Justice,  he 
organised  the  4  Normal  School,'  at  which  he  worked 
so  hard  that  he  contracted  his  last  illness.  As  it 
settled  down  upon  him  he  withdrew  from  his  activities 
and  took  the  post  of  Consul- General  at  Barcelona. 
When  he  came  before  a  great  assemblage  of  the  poets 
and  the  writers,  taking  leave  of  them  he  was  so 
deeply  moved  that  4  Here,'  he  said,  4  here  is  an  orator 
you  have  exalted,  one  who  cannot  speak.'  But  he 
could  sing  : — 


POETRY  IN  MEXICO 


357 


Ten  years  ago,  when  that  I  bade  farewell 

To  you,  my  mother,  I  was  but  a  child, 

And  now  my  sorrows  are  beguiled 
By  dreaming  how  your  kisses  fell — 

They  were  the  music  of  the  dew, 

They  were  the  singing  soul  of  you. 

Upon  my  knees  I  fling  me  forward  and 
From  here  I  worship  the  delightful  land, 

The  lofty  palm,  the  manglar's  gorgeous  dome, 
The  birds  that  sing  me  and  the  flowers  awake, 

The  cataracts  of  careless  foam 

Which  on  the  river's  bosom  break, 

And  the  magic-scented  breeze 

That  wanders  from  the  shadow  of  your  trees. 
Now,  very  soon,  my  mother,  I  shall  be 

With  you  on  that  dark  hill,  if  God  desire. 

And  near  the  Cross  we  love  I  shall  aspire 
To  pray,  as  once,  in  sweet  humility. 

I  shall  forget  the  fury  of  my  dreams, 

And  one  by  one  there  will  be  the  trooping  back 
My  childish  fancies — and  how  near  it  seems, 

The  little  house  by  yon  remembered  track  ! 
Then  with  my  head  upon  your  shoulder,  love, 

I  shall  disclose  to  you  the  broken  day, 
My  weary  waiting  you  will  watch  above, 

My  tears  will  be  bright  bubbles  for  your  play. 
Then  my  grey  doubts,  my  fearing  will  depart, 

The  relics  of  the  sorrowed  life  I  bore — 
Oh,  that  I  were  beside  you,  gentle  heart, 

Unhappy  woman — woman  I  adore. 

He  stayed  for  several  months  in  Barcelona  and  was 
ill,  so  that  he  was  removed  to  Paris.  He  was  ailing 
constantly  and  ailing  on  account  of  all  the  miles  of 
land  and  water  which  divided  him  from  his  beloved 
Guerrero.  When  he  died,  in  February,  1893,  he  left 
instructions  that  his  body  should  be  burned,  as 
was  the  custom  of  his  Aztec  ancestors.  He  left  his 
poems  to  the  manglars  of  Guerrero  and  the  careless 
cataracts,  so  that  it  is  not  needful  for  them  to  be  in 
the  Library. 


358      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


TWO  POEMS  BY  EL  DUQUE  JOB1 
I 

THE  OCEAN  DWELLERS 

Now  nearer  and  nearer 
And  swift  is  he  coming  ! 
With  chains  of  wet  coral, 
Red  coral  about  him — 
Now  comes  the  beloved, 
Ah,  now  comes  the  poet 
To  his  own  dominion 
For  ever  and  ever. 
Has  he  not  bestowed  on  us 
Riches  uncountable  ? 
Breathe  it  him,  sing  it  him, 
Beautiful  dreams  ! 
That  here  the  dim  ocean 
Is  full  of  his  poems, 
A  shell  is  each  volume, 
Each  poem  a  pearl. 


II 

FOR  THAT  DAY 

O  take  me,  death,  when  falls  the  sun 

At  sea,  my  face  turned  to  the  sky, 
Where  the  last  weakness  is  undone — 

My  soul  a  bird  which  now  at  last  may  fly. 

To  be  alone  with  sky  and  sea, 

Nor  have  to  listen  at  the  last 
To  lamentations,  let  there  be 

No  bell  save  what  the  breakers  cast. 

To  die  when  fading  dusk  retires 

Her  nets  of  gold  from  the  green  wave, 

Be  like  the  sun,  whose  grandest  fires 
Advance  as  heralds  of  the  grave. 

To  die  before  the  mob  of  years 

Rebel  against  my  rosy  crown, 
When  life  is  laughing  and  her  tears 

Laugh  as  the  dew  which  trembles  down. 

1  [Translated  from  the  lines  of  Manuel  Gutierrez  Najera,  a  Mexican 
poet  who  wrote  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  under  the 
pseudonym  El  Duque  Job.] 


CHAPTER  XV 


TO  CHILPANCINGO 
I 

The  two  Americans,  from  Arizona  and  from  God 
knows  where,  had  told  me  that  it  was  delightful  to  go 
camping  out  among  the  pine  woods  of  Guerrero.  It 
was  not  so  much  with  eloquence  that  they  succeeded 
in  convincing  me,  for  he  that  came  from  Arizona's 
desert — let  me  call  him  Westall — was  a  man  who  on 
his  own  confession  was  addicted  to  geology.  He  said 
that  there  was  nothing  in  the  world  so  interesting  as 
the  world's  formation.  This,  I  understood,  was  not 
why  he  was  going  to  the  wild  State  of  Guerrero  ;  he 
was  Petleigh's  friend.  This  Petleigh  was  a  flagrant 
company  promoter,  and  his  company  was  going  to 
flourish  in  Guerrero,  where  the  lumber  operations,  etc. 
etc.  . . .  He  was  like  to  a  prospectus  in  his  language,  and 
he  frequently  alluded  to  the  wonderful  resources. 
While  he  did  so  he  would  fix  me  with  his  cold,  blue 
eyes  as  if  he  scented  in  me  something  hostile,  and, 
indeed,  the  way  in  which  he  put  his  accent  on  the 
word  '  resources  '  was  enough  to  give  one  goose-flesh. 
In  Guerrero,  so  he  said,  were  forests  of  enormous  oak 
and  pine.  He  showed  me  photographs,  and  I  believed 
that  they  were  taken  in  Guerrero.  I  believe  it  still. 
.  .  .  And  so  we  started  on  the  expedition.  Our 
supplies  had  gone  by  railway  to  Iguala.  What  they 
were  I  knew  not  ;  in  the  capital  a  good  American  had 

359 


360      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


sold  me  a  serape,  woven  beautifully  by  the  natives 
and  impregnable  to  rain.  Moreover,  I  had  bought  a 
certain  kind  of  soap  which  you  require — I  hate  to  have 
to  say  it — if  you  should  accept  the  hospitality  of 
Indian  huts.  At  times,  on  other  expeditions,  I  have 
reached  a  house  of  branches  or  a  house  of  mud  as  night 
was  falling  and  the  natives  would  not  let  us  sleep 
except  upon  their  private  beds — they  gave  us  all  they 
had.  .  .  .  We  started  on  this  expedition,  which 
involves  a  railway  journey  of  the  most  magnificent. 
No  sooner  out  of  Mexico  than  the  ascent  begins,  and 
we  are  winding  upward  to  the  valley's  southern 
barrier.  We  pass  Chapultepec,  where  the  cadets  in 
1847  are  said  to  have  behaved  like  heroes  in  with- 
standing the  Americans.  And  they  are  honoured  in 
September,  every  year,  when  President  and  Cabinet 
and  diplomats  and  green-sashed  generals  and  sombre 
deputies  and  other  folk  assemble  in  the  grove. 
They  are  addressed  by  barristers — the  art  of  oratory 
contains  no  secrets  for  the  gentleman  whom  I  was 
privileged  to  hear — and  afterwards  a  hatless  lady 
speaks  with  fervour  and  a  young  cadet  with  his 
becoming  nervousness,  and  then  a  Spanish  poet 
dropped  his  eye-glass  and  declaimed  an  ode,  which 
very  shrewdly  ended  with  allusions  to  Pelayo  and  to 
Covadonga,  so  that  he  was  thunderously  applauded. 
Then  a  choir  of  girls  sang  patriotic  lines  which  they 
repeated  twice  at  least,  and  then  another  poet 
climbed  into  the  tribune.  He  was  frail,  a  school- 
master from  Puebla,  and  his  poetry  was  exquisite. 
Whenever  it  assumed  a  tinge  of  rhetoric  the  deputies 
would  elbow  one  another  and  exclaim  in  ecstasy. 
And  I  was  wondering  how  Diaz  could  have  all  this 
patience  ;  many,  many  times  he  must  have  listened 
to  the  selfsame  sentiments,  and  yet  he  sat  there  like 


TO  CHILPANCINGO 


361 


an  aged  lion.  Then  I  did  not  know  how  deaf  he  was. 
It  is  a  tax  on  all  of  them — except  upon  the  poets,  who 
are  not  supposed  to  be  original.  So  long  as  they  say 
pretty  things  of  youth,  things  that  were  old  when 
Homer  wrote,  so  long  as  they  work  in  a  metaphor 
about  a  river — Mexico,  save  in  Tabasco,  is  some- 
what destitute  of  rivers — and  so  long  as  they 
reiterate  the  word  4  sublime,'  it  will  go  well  with 
them.  Of  course,  they  must  not  criticise  the 
heroes.  Petleigh  said  that  many  of  them  lost  their 
lives  by  falling  from  the  rocks  in  their  desire 
to  leave  Chapultepec.  But  he  was  prejudiced,  no 
doubt.  I  have  alluded  to  the  part  which  poetry  is 
made  to  play  in  Mexico.  And  it  is  not  alone  at  such 
brave  anniversaries.  But  when,  as  not  unfrequently 
occurs,  a  statue  of  Benito  Juarez  is  unveiled,  there, 
sure  enough,  is  the  gesticulating  poet,  telling  lies 
about  the  fine  old  Indian.  When  the  House  of 
Congress  was  equipped  with  a  foundation-stone  the 
ceremony  was  so  long  drawn  out,  so  futile — surely 
not  an  omen — everyone  who  somehow  had  secured 
admittance  was  requested  to  append  his  signature  to 
certain  rolls  of  parchment  which  were  subsequently 
sealed  up  in  the  stone,  and  for  a  Mexican  to  write  his 
signature  is  no  such  easy  business,  seeing  that  a 
complicated  flourish  is  essential.  Maybe  when  a  larger 
number  of  the  population  have  acquired  the  art  of 
writing  they  will  not  make  so  much  fuss  about  it. 
We  were  getting  bored,  I  say,  on  that  uncomfortable, 
lofty  platform,  when  at  last  a  poet  came  upon  the 
scene  and  gave  his  version  of  the  beauties  of  a  House 
of  Congress.  He  perspired  extremely,  but  was  not 
applauded.  And  before  the  trouble  with  the  signing 
we  had  had  our  ears  divinely  tickled — we  had  been 
tickled,  the  Americans  would  say,  to  death — by  one 


362      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


of  Mexico's  fine  orators.  His  periods  could  certainly 
not  reach  the  native  workmen,  presumably  the 
builders  of  the  House,  who  stood  far  underneath  us 
on  the  ground,  and  in  another  sense  his  words  were 
much  above  them  ;  but  they  clapped  their  hands. 
Whenever  we  applauded  on  the  platform  there  was 
this  pathetic  rumble  of  applause  below. 

'  The  forests  of  Guerrero,'  Petleigh  said,  '  are 
wonderful,  and  we  have  got  enormous  tracts  of  land. 
I'll  tell  you  how  we  get  it.  There  is  someone  who 
discovers  that  a  man  owes  such  and  such  a  sum  for 
taxes.  He  is  pressed  to  pay  immediately.  He  cannot 
and  we  offer  him  that  sum,  with  an  additional  amount, 
for  all  his  property.  When  they  are  down,'  said  Petleigh, 
4  it  is  not  an  easy  matter  for  them  to  arise.'  'There's 
nothing  that  succeeds,'  he  told  me,  4  like  success.' 

I  mentioned  how  the  orator  was  deeply  gratified 
by  the  applause  from  those  poor  workmen ;  how,  in 
fact,  he  finished  up  his  peroration  with  a  reference  to 
what  the  proletariat  were  going  to  do.  They  had,  as 
he  quite  truthfully  observed,  not  taken  hitherto  what 
you  might  call  a  part  in  politics  ;  and  this  was  no 
injustice ;  they  had  not  displayed  an  interest  which 
you  might  call  intelligent.  But  standing  here,  upon 
the  future  House  of  Congress,  he  had  listened  with 
emotion  to  the  spirit  of  a  people  waking  up.  And 
when  the  House  was  built  they  would  be  ready  too. 
Then  some  of  us  upon  the  platform  cheered,  and  from 
the  ground  a  cheer  ascended. 

'  I  like  Chapultepec  for  one  thing,'  Petleigh  said ; 
4  it  has  some  splendid  trees.  Of  course,  it  isn't  what 
you  will  be  seeing  in  Guerrero,  but  I  like  Chapultepec' 

In  case  the  reader  has  these  sentiments,  he  may 
forgive  me  if  I  keep  him  there  another  moment,  to 
relate  a  grief  which  in  the  minds  of  many  spoiled  that 


TO  CHILPANCINGO 


363 


special  hero-function  I  have  mentioned.  He  who 
should  have  read  the  leading  poem  was  no  less  than 
Ruben  Dario,  the  delegate  from  Nicaragua,  and  held 
to  be  the  greatest  living  poet1  of  Latin- America.  He 
dwells  in  Paris.  When  he  sailed  for  Mexico  all 
promised  well,  but  soon  the  President  who  had 
appointed  him — a  President  whom  the  United  States 
held  in  aversion — fell,  and  his  credentials  as  a  delegate 
for  the  centenary  were  useless.  It  was  thought  that 
he  would  come  to  Mexico  as  if  he  were  an  ordinary 
citizen,  and  there  was  formed  a  club,  the  Ruben  Dario 
Society,  which  issued  proclamations  and  arrayed 
itself  in  the  attire  of  mediaeval  Spanish  students. 
When  the  train  from  Veracruz  was  nearly  due,  the 
club  drove  to  the  station  in  a  bunch  of  taxi-cabs,  but 
Ruben  Dario  did  not  arrive.  He  went  up  to  the 
chief  town  of  the  State  of  Veracruz,  Jalapa,  where 
he  lingered  in  the  sun-bathed  cloisters  and  he  issued 
proclamations  also.  In  a  little  time  he  left  the  country 
saying  that  he  would  betake  himself  to  the  United 
States.  I  have  been  told  that  in  his  poems  he  is  up 
against  the  States,  but  in  so  far  as  I  have  read  him 
he  confines  himself  to  beauty. 

There  is  one  thing  to  be  said  for  these  digressions, 
since  they  give  a  rough  idea  of  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  trains  proceed  in  Mexico.  The  scenery  is  often 
very  grand,  and  in  these  parts  it  is  not  only  most 
desirable,  it  is  most  requisite,  that  there  should  be  a 
limit  to  the  speed,  as  you  acknowledge  when  you  see 
the  locomotive  though  the  train  is  of  the  shortest  and 
you  do  not  lean  out  of  the  window.  Sometimes  in  the 
course  of,  say,  ten  miles  one  has  to  mount  three 
thousand  feet. 

1  He  is  one  of  the  greatest  lyric  writers  of  all  time  in  the  Spanish 
language.  A  band  of  disciples,  which  he  discourages,  has  joined 
itself  to  him.  A  revolutionary,  in  ten  years  he  transformed  Spanish 
poetry.  His  grace,  suppleness  and  learned  complexity  are  unequalled. 


364      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


II 

And  sometimes  it  will  happen  that  the  train  divides 
itself  in  two  and  has  to  be  united  with  a  rope.  But  they 
are  well  prepared  :  '  Three  long  whistles  is  the  signal,' 
say  the  regulations  [Section  I,  Article  89],  4  that  the 
train  has  divided  itself,  and  this  signal  will  have  to  be 
repeated  till  the  flag  or  lantern  answers  it.'  That 
whistling  is,  it  seems  to  me,  a  fair  example  of  the 
adage  that  to  know  is  to  forgive.  Through  many 
nights  I  would  have  furiously  raged,  I'm  sure,  if, 
lying  on  a  hard,  hygienic  bed  of  Mexico,  I  had 
been  forced  to  hear  the  varied  language  of  the 
locomotives  and  remain  in  ignorance  of  what  they 
meant.  It  made  my  joy  to  count  the  number  and 
the  length  of  all  the  whistlings,  for  I  knew  when- 
ever we  had  some  of  them  in  quick  succession 
that  a  person  or  an  animal  should  be  upon  the 
track ;  and  four  long  whistles  served  to  call  the 
guard,  and  four  long  whistles  followed  by  a  short  one 
was  to  call  him  to  protect  the  front  part  of  the  train. 

Sometimes,  where  the  land  is  marshy,  there  is 
even  climbing  to  be  done  inside  the  stations.  Thus 
a  locomotive  may  be  resting  at  a  certain  level  while 
the  third  or  fourth  compartment  is  a  good  ten  feet 
beneath  it.  And  at  less  diverting  stations  the 
imaginative  creatures  of  the  neighbourhood  do  what 
they  can.  With  chicken  pies  they  seek  to  please  you, 
lifting  up  the  edges  to  display  the  veritable  chicken  ; 
or  they  offer  fruits,  which  are  delicious  sometimes — 
granaditas,  prickly  pears  and  mangoes,  little  pine- 
apples and  miniature  bananas — then  there  will  be  the 
misguided  comrade  who  entreats  you  to  acquire  the 
paper  that  you  happily  avoided  in  the  capital  two 
weeks  ago,  an  illustrated  paper  which  attempts,  and 
not  without  success,  to  pass  by  on  the  other  side  of 


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TO  CHILPANCINGO 


365 


decency.  You  can  have  silver  spurs  and  hectic  sweets 
and  walking-sticks  and  opals  of  a  dubious  origin  and 
other  local  products.  A  man  who  plies  his  trade  about 
four  stations  out  of  Puebla  wishes  you  to  buy  his  dogs 
of  earthenware,  and  certainly  the  chances  are  that 
you  have  come  out  unprovided.  Often  there  is  raised 
the  cry  of  4  Una  caridad  por  el  amor  de  Bios  ! '  and 
it  is  appalling  that  a  person  should  be  blind  and  live 
among  such  scenery. 

But  Westall,  the  geologist,  was  never  made  for 
scenery.  As  we  went  curving  round  the  valley 
from  Chapultepec  he  looked  out  of  the  window  of  the 
train.  '  That  is  volcanic,'  he  would  say,  or,  '  That  is 
not  volcanic'  We  were  passing  by  long  orchards,  and 
between  the  branches  and  the  whitewashed  walls  the 
plain  of  Mexico  was  visible.  We  curved  among  the 
hills,  so  that  the  great  expanse  of  valley  took  on  the 
appearance  of  a  map,  and  Westall,  who  restrained  his 
observations  to  a  line  of  rocks  that  were  not  more  than 
eight  yards  from  his  nose,  observed :  '  That  is 
volcanic'  We  rose  up  beyond  the  sphere  of  agave 
plants,  we  had  the  pines,  and  down  beneath  us  lay  the 
rolling  land,  the  pallid  waters  of  Texcoco  and  the 
capital,  a  brownish  blot.  All  round  the  valley  stood 
the  chain  of  mountains,  and  the  capital  where  many 
thousand  mortals  had  been  killed  was  nothing  but  a 
dirty  patch  upon  the  quilt-work  of  the  valley. 
Straight  in  front  of  us,  magnificent  and  armoured  in 
the  morning  light,  were  Mexico's  extinct  volcanoes 
with  their  helmets  of  eternal  snow  :  Popocatepetl, 
white  brother  of  the  Matterhorn,  and  his  near  sister 
Iztaccihautl,  who  is  known  as  '  Sleeping  Woman.9 
Westall  said  :  '  That  is  volcanic' 

The  plateau  which  divides  this  valley  from  that  of 
Cuernavaca  is  inhabited  by  sober  woodcutters  and 


366      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


charcoal-burners.  At  a  place  called  Tres  Marias1  they 
have  tried  to  overcome  the  general  bleakness,  for  the 
station  building,  which  appears  to  act  as  an  hotel, 
is  of  two  stories  and  is  painted  red.  The  population, 
wrapped  in  blankets,  crouches  round  the  structure 
that  is  at  an  altitude  of  two  miles  from  the  Thames. 
They  regard  the  train  with  some  indifference  and  do 
not  even  rise  to  beg.  One  has  been  told,  by  people 
of  the  knowing  south,  that  virtue  is  to  be  considered 
geographically  ;  for  which  reason  it  may  be  the 
climate  that  is  answerable  for  this  manliness.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  the  climate  may  sweep  generosity 
and  kindly  thoughts  from  those  who  travel,  and  the 
people  of  the  neighbourhood  may  have  discovered 
that  it  is  in  vain  to  ask  for  alms  at  Tres  Marias.  Still 
we  look  askance  at  human  beings  who  can  live  without 
assistance  from  their  fellows — one  would  not  have 
fancied  that  the  world  can  hold  such  people,  but  that 
they  themselves  assure  you  that  it  is  a  fact,  and  one 
would  not  suppose  that  virtue  can  remain  immaculate 
in  any  man  if  there  be  not  some  pressure  brought  to 
bear.  It  is  unnatural  for  us  to  dwell  in  virtue,  and 
there  would  be  little  hope  for  us  if  we  did  not  address 
ourselves  to  scale  a  fortress  that  is  like  a  Pelion  piled 
upon  Gibraltar. 

Suddenly  we  find  ourselves  upon  the  ridge — that 
intervening  stretch  of  highland  has  been  traversed — 
and  instead  of  one  mere  valley  we  have  two  beneath 
us,  with  a  town  in  each  of  them.  Well,  it  is  Nature, 
dignified  in  protest ;  we  have  said  a  million  times 
that  in  the  tropics  she  is  prodigal,  and  now  she  wants 

1  The  other  unattractive  Tres  Marias  of  Mexico  consist  really  of 
four  small  islands  in  the  Pacific.  One  of  them,  Man'a  Madre  (about 
9  miles  by  4),  is  a  penal  colony  and  usually  shelters  more  than  two 
thousand  pickpockets  and  minor  criminals  who  are  set  to  work  in  the 
salt-pits  under  the  guard  of  a  hundred  soldiers.  The  more  serious 
criminals  of  Mexico  are  enrolled  in  the  army. 


TO  CHILPANCINGO 


367 


to  bring  it  home  to  the  meanest  understanding 
that  she  can  be  prodigal  wherever  she  desires.  We 
have  already  passed  La  Cruz  del  Marques,  an  enormous 
cross  of  stone  which  marks  the  territory  granted  by  the 
Crown  to  Cortes,  as  Marquis  of  the  Valley.  In  the 
splendid  panorama  we  can  see  two  towns  at  once,  but 
the  domain  of  Cortes  held  a  matter  of  some  thirty 
towns  and  villages.  And  it  has  not  been  all  dispersed  ; 
away  beyond  the  towers  of  Cuernavaca  we  discern,  as 
we  go  zigzag  down  the  mountain's  side,  a  patch  of 
brilliant  green,  which  is  the  sugar  land  of  Atlacomulco. 
This  belonged  to  Cortes  and  is  owned  by  his  direct 
descendant,  the  Duke  of  Terra  Nova  y  Monteleone. 
We  have  passed  the  sphere  of  pines  and  now  the  fields 
that  we  are  gliding  down  have  lilac,  pink  and  yellow 
flowers,  the  lilac  ones  appear  to  spread  a  sort  of  haze. 
Down — down  we  go ;  that  other  valley  vanishes  and  we 
approach  the  level  land  of  this  the  garden  State  of 
Mexico,  which  is  called  after  one  of  her  great  revolu- 
tionary patriots,  Morelos.  It  is  like  the  sua  vest  carpet, 
and  it  rolls  up  to  a  wall  of  hills,  pale  blue  and  purple. 
On  their  western  side,  between  them  and  the  ocean, 
is  Guerrero.  We  shall  soon  be  carried  from  this 
summer  landscape  to  the  forests  of  Guerrero. 


Ill 

For  many  kilometres  after  leaving  the  luxuriance  of 
Cuernavaca  we  are  going  through  a  fertile  country 
where  the  people  live,  as  other  lowly  Mexicans,  in 
ventilated  houses,  seeing  that  the  walls  consist  of 
wood  and  air,  the  quantities  approximately  equal. 
We  may  spend  ourselves  in  remonstrating  with  the 
Mexicans  of  other  parts,  because  when  it  is  cold  they 
shiver.    Thus  it  has  been,  thus  it  will  be,  and  they 


368      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


listen  to  our  words  as  much  as  to  the  wind.  But  in  the 
vale  of  Cuernavaca  it  is  probable  that  all  those  flowers, 
flying  to  the  breach,  afford  an  adequate  protection. 
Sugar  mills  and  peaceful  huts  and  flowers — till  we 
reach  the  stern  land  of  Guerrero. 

It  may  be  remembered,  possibly,  that  there  were 
three  of  us  who  undertook  this  expedition.  I  do  not 
feel  the  necessity  for  writing  much  of  Westall,  as  he 
did  not  alter.  What  is  the  use  of  change  of  scene  if  in 
ourselves  there  is  no  change  ?  And  Petleigh  did  not 
cease  to  talk  about  Guerrero,  so  that  long  before  we 
disembarked  at  one  of  Mexico's  historic  towns — you 
find  them  everywhere,  and  that  may  be  why  Mexico 
is  not  more  happy — long  before  we  pulled  up  at 
Iguala  I  was  wishing  that  Guerrero  could  be  wiped 
from  off  the  map — or  Petleigh.  And  the  solitary  deed 
of  violence  we  saw  was  carried  out  upon  a  person  who 
was  too  flamboyant  in  his  praise.  The  car  was 
boarded,  at  the  station  just  before  Iguala,  by  a  couple 
of  most  active  boys  who  started  to  enlarge  upon  the 
glories  of  their  two  hotels.  We  listened  for  a  time, 
and  then  it  seemed  to  us  that,  really,  if  we  chose  the 
one  or  if  we  chose  the  other  we  should  fall  upon  our 
feet.  I  say  we  listened,  but  it  was  to  a  duet,  for  these 
two  boys  insisted  on  a  simultaneous  unfolding  of  their 
stories.  It  was  evident  that  they  were  on  the  best  of 
terms,  and  probably  they  had  it  thus  arranged 
between  them  that  they  should  exhort  the  passengers 
together  and  so  modify  the  deadliness  of  competition  ; 
they  would  not  be  called  upon  to  exercise  their  wits 
in  paying  their  attentions  to  us  in  a  certain  order, 
they  did  not  make  any  study  of  us,  and  if  either  of 
them  got  an  angel — well,  it  was  unawares.  We 
promised  to  put  up  with  them,  and  they  set  out  in 
search  of  other  clients.  But  a  sallow  Mexican  became 


TO  CHILPANCINGO 


369 


exasperated,  he  arose  and  knocked  their  heads 
together.  It  was  treatment,  clearly,  which  they  were 
unused  to,  for  until  the  train  was  at  Iguala  they 
remained  completely  dazed.  And  there  our  luggage 
and  our  persons  were  enveloped  by  a  score  of  helpers 
who  transferred  them  to  a  shaky  carriage  ;  and  within 
ten  minutes  we  had  taken  rooms  at  an  hotel. 

Iguala  is  the  place  where  Iturbide  and  other 
patriots,  against  whom  he  had  lately  fought,  united 
for  the  promulgation  of  that  instrument  known  as  the 
Plan  de  Iguala.  There  have  been  many  plans  in 
Mexico,  but  this  of  1821  is  among  the  most  famous  and 
among  the  best.  Iguala  likewise  is  the  place  where 
they  evolved  the  present  flag.  To-day  the  town  is 
something  of  a  centre  for  Guerrero.  Peasants  wander 
in  from  forty  miles  away  to  do  their  marketing,  and 
by  a  line  of  motors,  recently  established,  one  can 
penetrate  to  Chilpancingo  de  los  Bravos,  the  dreamy 
capital.  When  it  was  dark,  at  seven  o'clock,  the  car 
appeared  ;  they  undertook  to  start  with  us  at  break- 
fast-time, so  that  we  could  have  all  the  afternoon  at 
Chilpancingo,  talking  to  the  Governor,  hiring  mules  or 
buying  them,  arranging  as  to  routes  and  so  forth. 
'  And  to-morrow  evening,'  said  Petleigh,  '  you  will 

camp  among  the  trees.  You  never  saw  '    It  was  a 

feeble  way  for  getting  out  of  it,  but  I  remarked  that 
we  had  never  seen  the  market-place  and  that  it  was 
high  time  to  go.  A  lucky  thing  we  did,  because  it  was 
entirely  picturesque.  The  square  enclosure,  open 
to  the  night,  contained  a  crowd  of  ghostly  people  who 
were  passing  to  and  fro  between  the  stalls,  and  on 
the  stalls  were  wind-blown  lamps.  It  was  fantastic, 
verily,  when  this  unhastening,  quiet  congregation 
had  the  whiteness  of  its  raiment  shown  in  flashes. 
They  were  strolling  like  so  many  patrons,  but  from 

2  B 


370      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


time  to  time  they  bought  a  painted  bowl,  a  strip  of 
sun-dried  meat,  a  glass  of  shaven  ice  and  syrup,  or 
they  very  seriously  listened  to  Caruso  on  the  gramo- 
phone, or  they  would  sit  upon  their  feet — no  other 
words  describe  the  attitude — while  they  were  handed 
little  saucerfuls  of  something  by  a  comfortable- 
looking  woman  who  presided  at  the  brasier,  and 
instead  of  kitchen  apparatus  used  her  ringers. 

We  were  given  every  chance  of  seeing  what  Iguala 
has  to  offer,  since  an  alteration  had  to  be  effected 
on  the  car  and  it  was  five  hours  after  breakfast -time 
when  we  began  to  load.  The  mail  for  Chilpancingo 
and  beyond  was  in  some  thirty  bags,  which  filled  the 
car.  It  seemed  to  us  to  be  a  pity  that  the  Government 
prefer  to  send  their  bags  for  the  Pacific  ports  of  South 
America  by  this  peculiar  way.  There  is  the  railroad 
to  Salina  Cruz  where  vessels  call,  for  I  have  seen 
them  ;  but,  lo  !  the  bags  are  carried  in  erratic  motors 
up  to  Chilpancingo,  then  on  horseback  for  a  hundred 
miles  to  Acapulco,  where  they  wait  for  boats.  You 
therefore  seem  to  run  a  certain  risk  if  you  send 
correspondence  from  this  part  of  Mexico  to  Chili,  but 
our  young  American  chauffeur  assured  us  that  the 
damage  which  a  letter  might  receive  from  climate  was 
of  no  importance.  If  these  fellows,  so  he  said,  can 
read  at  all  they  do  it  well.  He  had  the  same  high 
faith  in  the  capacity  of  his  machine,  for  when  he  took 
his  seat  he  did  not  trouble  to  look  round,  much  less  to 
ask  the  weight  of  any  of  the  pieces  that  were  piled 
upon  the  bags.  And  on  the  top  of  them  sat  Westall, 
up  above  the  roof,  if  there  had  been  one  ;  also  Petleigh 
with  his  gun.  My  place  was  at  the  chauffeur's  left, 
and  at  my  left,  astride  of  a  portmanteau  that  with 
several  others  and  our  cooking  outfit  had  been 
fastened  to  the  car  with  ropes,  astride  of  my  port- 


TO  CHILPANCINGO 


371 


manteau  was  Ramon,  the  gentle  mozo.  Nothing 
happened  for  the  first  half-mile,  but  then  we  punctured 
and  it  started  raining,  though  it  was  not  then  the 
rainy  season.  We  were  glad,  at  all  events,  to  have 
Ramon,  because  the  chauffeur  said  that  he  himself  was 
in  the  grip  of  fever  and  incapable  of  much  exertion. 
Still,  he  took  us  at  a  great  old  pace  through  Perth- 
shire scenery,  by  waterfalls  and  mountain  fields  until, 
as  it  was  growing  dark,  we  reached  the  Balsas  river 
and  contrived  to  get  across  two  slimy  planks  into 
a  ferryboat.  They  had  to  pull  us  up  a  hundred  yards 
or  so,  the  current  being  powerful,  and  then  we 
navigated  to  the  other  side.  Again  we  got  across  the 
slimy  planks,  received  another  mail-bag  and  resumed 
our  journey.  In  the  rainy  darkness  we  discerned  but 
little  of  the  road  when  it  was  heading  straight  through 
a  ravine,  at  other  times  it  hugged  the  mountain.1 
Swiftly  it  would  turn  aside,  then  back  again,  then 
almost  make  a  circle  round  a  rock.  We  should  have 
liked  to  see  the  road,  because  it  is  not  often  that  you 
find  one  that  is  but  a  few  months  old  and  is  so 
thoroughly  equipped  with  ruts.  We  slided  in  and  out 
of  these,  not  knocking  anywhere  against  the  mountain. 
As  we  rose  and  skirted  round  a  fearsome  precipice  we 
only  slided  over  once. 

IV 

At  the  beginning  of  our  precipice  we  found  a  quantity 
of  mud,  sufficient  to  arrest  the  motor's  downward 
course.    There  in  the  storm-swept  darkness  it  was 

1  That  there  should  be  a  road  at  all  is  praiseworthy.  '  It  would  be 
money  thrown  away,'  says  Dr.  Gadow  in  his  book  'In  Southern 
Mexico,'  which  does  not  charm  the  naturalist  alone,  'it  would  be 
money  thrown  away  to  construct  a  cart-road,  as  every  rainy  reason  it 
would  be  washed  away.'  He  travelled  through  these  parts  as  recently 
as  in  the  years  1902  and  1904. 


372      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


hardly  opportune  to  moralise,  but  we  should  live  a 
very  happy  life  if  we  could  bring  ourselves  to  think, 
as  we  are  told  to  do,  that  all  our  trials  are,  in  truth, 
so  many  blessings  :  we  had  reviled  the  rain  which 
made  the  mud.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  of  delicate 
manceuvrings  and  we  were  back  upon  the  road. 
It  was  a  far  cry  yet  to  Chilpancingo.  which  my  two 
American  companions  had  been  calling  Chil.  as  if  by 
such  familiarity  to  make  themselves  and  all  of  us 
believe  that  it  was  not  so  distant.  And  their  country- 
man, our  fever-stricken  chauffeur,  was  astonishingly 
cheerful.  He  was  wet  from  coat  to  skin,  because  it 
had  been  his  belief  that  it  was  not  the  rainy  season. 
Destitute  of  overcoat,  he  whistled  merrily.  He  found 
it  possible  to  joke  (despite  our  gloomy  silence),  and 
the  sole  precaution  which  he  took  against  the  weather 
was  to  keep  his  left  hand  at  the  turned-up  collar 
of  his  coat,  while  with  his  right  he  undertook  to 
steer  the  slipping  motor.  We  drove  high  above  a 
valley  which  contained  a  camp  of  lighted  huts  and 
round  them  a  stockade.  A  little  later  on  we  overtook 
the  soldiers  with  a  ragged  crew  of  convicts  ;  they 
had  been  at  work  all  day  upon  the  road,1  and  now 

1  The  roads  of  many  parts  of  Mexico  are  in  deplorable  decay,  so 
that  the  produce  of  a  farm  will  be  allowed  to  rot  a  few  leagues  from 
the  market.  West  of  Uruapam,  where  no  railway  runs,  the  finest 
coffee  in  the  world  has  little  value  ;  sugar-cane,  tobacco  and  vanilla 
and  enormous  crops  of  cereals  have  caused  Jalisco  to  be  known  as  the 
Republic^  granary,  but  often  one  has  heard  the  farmers  sigh  for  roads 
and  often  heard  the  little  farmers  wish  the  railways  could  be  turned 
to  roads.  The  Spanish  highways,  such  as  that  which  goes  to  Xochi- 
calco,  have  in  many  cases  turned  into  moraines,  where  everything — 
except  his  horse's  acrobatic  skill — is  calculated  to  depress  the  traveller. 
And  sometimes  in  the  middle  of  the  towns,  as  in  the  wealthy  mining 
town  Pachuca.  you  will  find  that  roads  are  furnished  not  with 
mountains  only,  but  with  valleys,  here  a  pile  of  building-stone  that  was 
abandoned  years  ago  and  there  a  lake  of  mud  eight  inches  deep,  and 
as  for  width — in  front  of  a  Pachucan  plutocrat's  abode  the  lake, 
although  it  had  not  rained  for  some  three  days,  extended  fifty  feet. 
But  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  taxes  there  had  been  imposed  upon 
that  State  a  tax  of  2  per  cent  on  salaries  and  wages— this  would  have 


a  * 

i;-a 

So" 


41  fl  ». 

K  «  3 

■S.S  o 

£  <u  i 

/*    1/5  R 


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«  2  S 


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a 

O 
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o 
o 

'd 
o 


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c4  c« 


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S  ftT3 


5  « 


TO  CHILPANCINGO 


373 


were  trudging  back.  From  their  demeanour  one 
supposed  that  they  were  as  indifferent  to  fortune  as 
to  us  ;  a  single  one,  a  giant,  shook  his  fist  at  us,  and 
he  was  brought  to  reason  by  a  tiny  soldier  reaching 
up  and  boxing  both  his  ears.  We  did  not  come  past 
any  people  who  were  on  the  road  for  choice.  Ramon, 
the  gentle  mozo,  who  was  clinging  to  the  car  at  my 
left  elbow  and  who  was  as  thinly  clad  as  the  American 
— poor  Ramon  merely  shuddered.  6  Br — r — r — r,' 
said  he.  The  mountain  had  been  at  the  side  where  he 
was  ;  when  we  swerved  across  a  bridge  and  he  was 
hanging  more  or  less  above  the  precipice  he  did  not 
speak.  The  ruts  were  always  growing  more  pro- 
nounced ;  whatever  else  the  convict  labourers  can  do, 
they  cannot  build  a  flawless  road,  and  parts  of  it  were 
flying  in  a  constant  shower  above  the  two  Americans 
who  occupied  their  seats  of  peril  on  the  baggage, 
perched  behind  us.  After  two  or  three  more  kilo- 
metres we  descended  to  a  marshy  place  where,  at  an 
Indian  settlement,  we  halted,  and  Ramon  got  water  for 
the  car.  These  native  dwellings  were  so  rickety  that 
we  could  witness  their  domestic  operations  through 
the  walls.  We  saw  the  menfolk  mostly  squatting 
round  the  fire,  whereas  the  women  at  the  outside  of 
the  circle  knelt  in  front  of  stones  and  pounded  corn 
to  make  tortillas  for  the  evening  meal.  That  woman 
who  supplied  us  with  the  water  stood  outside  the  hut 

filled  up  the  Governmental  purse,  if  there  had  been  no  Governmental 
purses.  And  upon  the  famous  road  between  Pachuca  and  Real  del 
Monte  one  could  see  how  Don  Porfirio's  Government  acknowledged 
that  a  road  could  have  considerable  value.  Just  before  arriving  at  the 
hill-top  we  encountered  an  old  man,  a  servant  of  the  Government,  who 
asked  for  29  centavos.  It  appeared  to  us  that  7  pence  was  too  much 
of  a  burden  for  a  drive  of  four  miles  on  a  public  road.  The  cost  of 
building  it,  however — and  it  is  a  veritable  engineering  feat — was  very- 
large,  our  guide  observed,  and  it  was  built  by  the  Old  Taylor  Company 
(from  England)  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  '  The 
upkeep  of  it  must  involve,'  we  said,  *  a  great  deal  of  expense.'  *  That 
is  so,'  said  the  guide,  '  it  costs  the  Company  a  lot  of  money.' 


374      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


and  gazed  at  us,  with  several  children  at  her  skirts. 
She  was  not  comely,  but  the  lighted  raindrops,  falling 
on  her  forehead,  were  as  if  a  chain  of  rivers  had 
been  flung  by  Providence  across  a  country  that  was 
parched  and  brown. 

Again  we  took  the  road,  though  more  than  one  of 
us,  I  do  believe,  was  hoping  for  an  instant  breakdown, 
so  that  we,  the  victims  of  a  most  malicious  sprite, 
could  well  ask  for  a  place  beside  the  Indians'  fire.  We 
rolled  into  the  darkness  that  was  drenched  with  rain  ; 
it  made  us  feel  as  if  we  were  the  citizens  of  some  deep 
ocean's  floor.  '  Br — r — r — r,'  sighed  Ramon,  1  Oh  ! 
what  barbarity  !  '  The  chauffeur  knew  that  winding 
road  by  heart,  but  after  three  more  wretched  kilo- 
metres, which  he  did  most  gallantly,  he  stopped  all  of 
a  sudden  in  his  whistling,  for  between  the  mountain 
and  the  precipice  were  two  enormous  boulders  and 
some  smaller  ones.  This  also  had  been  brought  about 
by  the  unending  rain.  They  must  have  fallen  down 
the  mountain  side  within  the  last  half-hour,  as  we 
were  presently  informed  by  someone  of  the  village 
who  had  been  that  way  on  business,  as  he  told  us 
when  he  came  at  last  with  Ramon,  whom  we  had 
dispatched  in  search  of  any  help.  He  and  four 
other  villagers  arrived  with  crowbars  and  with 
torches  to  assist  us — in  default  of  implements,  we  had 
been  able  to  do  nothing  but  lay  hands  upon  the 
boulders.  The  commander  of  this  band,  which 
Ramon  found  for  us,  turned  out  to  be  a  personage  of 
forty  with  a  weedy  beard — he  looked  as  if  he  was  a 
carpenter — and  he  could  wield  his  crowbar  very 
shrewdly,  he  insinuated  it  beneath  a  boulder  and 
persuaded  this  unwelcome  visitant  to  move  towards 
him.  His  companions  stared  in  admiration,  more 
especially  an  aged  fellow  who  was  lavish  with  en- 


TO  CHILPANCINGO 


375 


couragement  and  praise.  But  the  boulder's  progress 
was  not  swift,  and  we  had  ample  reason  to  desire  to 
leave  :  above  us  from  the  mountain  issued  noises  that 
were  ominous.  Yet,  as  it  happened,  they  were  never 
followed  by  a  scattering  of  rocks  ;  they  scattered  us, 
indeed,  because  we  could  not  know  if  it  would  always 
be  a  case  of  shingle  and  of  harmless  stones.  We  fled 
as  the  reverberating  noise  began ;  we  waited  till  the 
mountain  had  discharged  itself  and  then  we  came 
back  through  the  mud  and  rain.  For  want  of  crow- 
bars most  of  us  did  nothing,  save  that  from  time  to 
time  we  gave  advice.  When  we  had  watched  the 
weedy  carpenter  and  his  assistants  move  the  boulder, 
maybe  half  a  foot  in  half  an  hour,  it  seemed  to  us  that 
if  we  turned  our  steps — the  car  we  could  by  no  means 
turn — towards  the  Indian  settlement,  this  action, 
fraught  with  ignominy,  would  at  any  rate  be  prudent. 
They  would  take  us,  to  be  sure,  inside  the  circle. 
We  were  partly  reconciled  already  to  the  losing  of  our 
baggage,  since  the  motor  was  in  constant  jeopardy  of 
being  crushed,  but  now  the  chauffeur  thought  he 
could  advance.  He  moved  his  hind  wheel  sideways 
with  the  jack  and  then  he  charged  into  the  narrow 
space  between  the  mountain  and  the  boulder,  so  that 
he  became  completely  jammed.  There  surged  in  us  a 
dreadful  feeling  that  the  denizens  of  Acapulco  would 
not  have  their  mail  in  time  and  that  some  luckless 
people  of  the  South  American  republics  would  be 
absolutely  disappointed  in  their  news  of  Mexico.  The 
cotton  bags  provided  by  their  Governments  in  lieu  of 
canvas  ones  were  scarcely  looking  as  if  they  would 
answer  expectations.  We  were  jammed,  I  say, 
between  the  mountain  and  the  boulders. 

Some  of  us  have  recollections  of  the  talk  around  a 
camp-fire  when  the  stars  come  nearer  so  that  they 


376      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


may  listen.  We  have  had  our  comrades,  lying  on  the 
ground  in  glorious  fatigue,  who  spoke,  one  fancied,  to 
eternity.  The  silence  of  the  wilderness  fell  back  before 
them.  On  our  hazardous,  high  path  to  Chilpancingo 
we  had  motor-lamps  in  place  of  dying  embers,  and  the 
scented  torches  of  the  Indians  were  the  stars.  And 
thus  we  spoke  : 

Ramon,  the  gentle  mozo  (as  he  marked  time  in  the 
mud)  :  4  Br— r— r— r.  O  God  !  O  God  !  What  end 
do  we  go  to  see  ?  ' 

The  Venerable  Indian  :  e  O  Candelario  !  That  thou 
mayestlive!  It  moves.  Thou  art  more  strong  than  ' 

The  Mountain  :  '  M — m — attle — m — m — m — 
achchch  ' 

The  Chauffeur  (at  his  wheel) :  '  Suppose  you  want  a 
change  of  air.  .  .  .  Jesus,  can't  it  rain  ?  .  .  .  Say !  If 
you're  better  now  you  might  as  well  come  back.' 

The  Weedy  Carpenter  (as  he  advances) :  '  Let  us  do 
the  work.   We  have  begun  it.' 

Ramon  (advancing  from  the  other  side)  :  4  O  my 
mother  !  Here  we  are,  indeed.'  [He  laughs  hysteri- 
cally.] 

The  Weedy  Carpenter  (to  those  behind  him) :  8 1  am 
smiling.   They  cannot  do  without  us  others.' 

The  White-clad  Indians  (lit  up  by  the  motor-lamps) : 
*  We  others.' 

Ramon  :  '  Br — r — r.  But  it  is  cold.  Carajo !  I 
do  swear  that  it  is  cold.' 

The  Venerable  Indian  :  '  Boy  !  Be  you  even  as  our 
Candelario.  What  is  the  good  of  you  ?  Tell  me. 
Be  still.' 

A  Mournful  One  (who  stands  and  contemplates)  : 
'  Would  that  to  God  we  had  not  come.  And  yet 
perhaps  they  will  be  paying  as  we  do  deserve,  by  God. 
.  .  .  But  who  knows  ?  ' 


TO  CHILPANCINGO 


377 


The  Venerable  Indian  :  '  O  God,  may  you  be 
exalted  !  ' 

Parts  of  the  Motor  :  6  Gl — gl — gl — o — o — gl — gl — 
shshgl  ' 

Chorus  of  Indians  :  '  What  shall  we  do  ?  We  are 
here  to  be  destroyed.  O  thou  machine,  and  may  thy 
days  be  short !  And  may  the  hand  of  God  be  on  thee  ! ' 

The  Weedy  Carpenter  :  4  It  is  pleasant  that  the 
lamps  are  hot.' 

There  is  no  justice  in  the  world  (except,  I  have  been 
told,  in  Mexico  ;  because  when  it  was  bruited  that  a 
Minister  of  Justice  was  retiring  and  a  most  laborious  but 
uninspired  official  would  be  chosen,  the  appointment 
certainly  encountered  much  approval  for  the  reason 
that  in  Mexico  you  want  a  man  who  conscientiously 
will  have  the  laws  administered  ;  to  make  improve- 
ments, they  asserted,  is  impossible) — if  justice  were 
allowed  to  flourish  we  should  not  curtail  the  story  of 
the  moving  of  those  boulders.  Manfully  and  ably  did 
the  Indians  toil,  so  that  we  went  upon  our  way. 
Those  other  five -and -thirty  kilometres  shall  not  here 
detain  us  and  the  fact  is  that  we  were  so  much  inured 
to  the  deplorable  conditions  as  to — I  could  almost  say 
be  merry.  It  may  not  be  in  accordance  with  the 
precepts  of  a  Church,  but  when  afflictions,  like  so 
many  vultures,  seem  to  blacken  every  quarter  of  your 
sky,  there  is  a  solace  in  the  thought  that  you  have 
roused  a  splendid  foe.  We  were  indifferent  when 
something  happened  to  the  steering  apparatus,  and 
we  laughed  when  it  began  to  hail.  We  shrugged 
our  shoulders  at  the  lightning,  just  as  if  we  dwelt  in 
gay  Valencia,  where  it  has  been  ordered  by  St. 
Vincent  Ferrer  not  to  fall.  But  there  was  something 
pitiable  when  the  car,  which  had  been  rolling  through 
so  much  of  rain  and  mud,  was  in  distress  for  lack  of 
water. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  GAMBLERS  OF  MEXICO 

A  gentleman  connected  with  Mexico's  State  Lottery 
was  good  enough  to  tell  me  how  and  why  the  thing 
is  carried  on.  I  never  thought  that  it  was  other  than 
an  honest  institution,  and  so  much  more  honest  than 
some  other  forms  of  local  business  that  it  would  be 
quite  regrettable  if  it  were  done  an  injury  by  mis- 
construction or  by  inadvertence.  So  I  told  the 
lottery  official  that  his  information  would  become  the 
basis  of  an  article,  and  he,  to  spare  me  trouble,  wrote 
the  article  himself.  '  In  our  columns  we  have  always 
managed  to  discuss,'  he  says,  4  those  matters  which 
are  of  collective  or  of  public  interest.  Certain  papers 
of  the  capital  have  occupied  themselves,  from  time 
to  time,  in  leading  coarse  attacks  upon  the  lotteries, 
and  have  pretended  to  esteem  them  as  pernicious 
as  all  other  games  of  hazard.  We,  for  our  part,  do 
not  now  propose  to  deal  with  all  the  lotteries  es- 
tablished here,  since  they  are  private  enterprises — 
with  a  very  few  exceptions  ;  and  on  this  account 
we  must  consider  that  they  have  a  transitory  life, 
so  that  it  is  not  needful  to  discuss  them,  all  the  more 
as  they  conduct  the  chief  part  of  their  operations  in 
the  capitals  of  some  of  the  Republic's  States  or  in 
some  towns  of  the  interior ;  for  which  reason  a  correct 
account  of  their  security,  their  method  and  whatever 
else  there  is  to  learn  about  them  would  be  truly 

378 


THE  GAMBLERS  OF  MEXICO  379 


difficult.  We  consequently  shall  restrict  ourselves 
to  studying  the  National  Lottery  of  Mexico,  which 
is,  from  every  point  of  view,  a  most  respectable 
affair,  and  which,  unlike  all  others,  is  protected, 
organised  and  guaranteed  by  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment ;  there  cannot  be  a  doubt  but  that  it  will  in- 
volve you  in  far  less  than  average  risk,1  because  not 
only  of  the  purity  but  the  lawfulness  of  its  drawings. 
We  have  made  our  calculations  and  have  verified 
them,  so  that  we  can  say  it  is  the  one  which  is  supreme 
in  the  proportion  of  its  funds  allotted  to  the  prizes. 
While  those  lotteries  which  are  most  liberal  give 
back  in  prizes  up  to  60  per  cent  of  their  takings,  our 
National  Lottery  usually  yields  64,  65,  66  and  even 
70  per  cent,  according  to  the  importance  of  the 
drawing,  and  this  liberality  is  not  attained  by  any 
similar  establishment  in  all  the  world,  save  those  of 
universal  fame  such  as  the  National  Lottery  of 
Madrid.'  Perhaps  the  good  man  has  not  seen  one  of 
those  luring  papers  which  are  sent  from  Budapest, 
and  which  attempt  to  dazzle  us  with  a  reward  more 
grand  than  even  70  per  cent  in  cash  ;  they  tell  how 
it  has  been  the  lot  of  many  families  to  gain,  in  this 
way,  riches  and  respectability. 

But  do  not  run  away  with  the  idea  that  in  the 
lottery  we  are  describing  there  is  no  beneficent  or 
admirable  feature  other  than  the  70  per  cent.  6  The 

1  In  Peru,  if  in  no  other  of  the  sister  countries,  you  appear  to  run 
a  risk  of  making  terms  with  the  authorities  about  your  prize.  At 
some  manoeuvres  in  the  mountains  of  Peru  the  attache  from  France 
remarked  that  every  morning  one  stout  general  officer  was  called  ex- 
tremely late,  and  that  when  he  had  breakfasted  at  leisure  and  had 
smoked  a  good  cigar  he  turned  his  field-glass  on  the  troops.  Where 
lay  the  explanation  ?  '  You  must  understand,'  the  general  said,  '  that 
I  was  once  a  grocer.  Then  I  won  the  million-dollar  prize.  The 
Government  informed  me  that  they  could  not  pay ;  but  they  could 
pay  one  half,  and  for  the  rest  they  would  confer  upon  me  this  posi- 
tion.   I  accepted.' 


380      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


National  Lottery,'  he  continues,  6  is  a  Public  Office, 
which  depends  directly  from  the  Ministry  of  Finance 
and  Public  Credit ;  this  department  takes  upon  itself 
to  regulate  whatever  touches  the  aforesaid  lottery. 
Moreover,  the  committee  of  directors  is  composed 
of  honourable  men,  whose  names  alone  give  to  the 
devotees  of  our  establishment  a  feeling  of  security. 
He  who  officiates  just  now  as  president  is  Don 
Gabriel  Mancera,  the  engineer  and  senator  who  is 
so  distinguished  for  his  altruistic  gifts.  With  him 
are  some  illustrious  men  of  business  and  some  of  the 
most  conspicuous  among  the  members  of  Society.' 
Oh,  to  be  sure,  the  days  are  distant  when  a  lottery 
in  Mexico  could  be  conducted  by  a  single  man.  There 
was  a  person,  once  upon  a  time,  a  most  iniquitous 
Parisian,  who  distracted  many  with  his  so-called 
lottery  of  animals.  His  stock-in-trade  consisted  of 
two  dozen  cardboard  animals,  of  whom  he  put  one, 
every  morning,  in  a  box.  It  then  became  the  busi- 
ness of  the  players  to  select  their  beast,  to  bet  so 
many  dollars  and  await  the  opening  of  the  box,  which 
ceremony  of  an  evening  was  attended  by  enormous 
multitudes.  In  fact,  the  concourse  grew  to  be  so  vast, 
the  street  so  crowded,  that  it  was  impossible  for 
the  inhabitants  to  leave  their  houses,  and  the  public 
nuisance  of  a  Frenchman  had  to  seek  another  sphere 
for  his  activities,  but  not  until  he  had  accomplished 
his  gigantic  coup.  One  day  as  he  was  putting  in  the 
box  that  piece  of  cardboard  which  was  fashioned  in 
the  image  of  a  serpent  he  became  aware  that  there 
was  someone  at  the  keyhole,  and  behold  it  was  a 
youth  who  had  adopted  this  device  for  getting  stable 
information.  Quickly  haled  into  the  room,  he  was 
rebuked  for  acting  in  a  manner  so  equivocal,  but  after 
having  promised  that  he  would  not  breathe  a  word 


THE  GAMBLERS  OF  MEXICO  381 


of  his  ill-gotten  knowledge,  he  was  told  by  the  pro- 
prietor that  he  could  run  away.  Of  course  he 
whispered  of  the  serpent  to  a  thousand  people,  and, 
of  course,  the  Frenchman  put  a  tiger  in  the  box.  .  .  . 
We  do  not  need  to  be  persuaded  that  the  Loteria 
Nacional  would  have  to-day  no  such  manipulations. 
4  Owing  to  its  righteous  directorate,  owing  also  to 
unwearied  study  of  the  wants  and  fancies  of  the 
public,  it  has  not  been  left  behind  while  other  business 
in  the  Mexican  Republic  has  developed  ;  on  the 
contrary,  it  has  obtained  among  the  public  always 
more  and  more  prestige.'  One  only  need  be  present 
on  a  Monday,  Wednesday  or  Friday  afternoon  at 
three  o'clock  to  know  immediately  that  the  adminis- 
tration of  to-day  is  altogether  different  from  that 
of  1883.  Suppose  that  he  who  then  was  President 
of  the  Republic,  General  Don  Manuel  Gonzalez,  were 
to  ride  back  from  the  grave,  unchastened,  and  re- 
sume the  reins  of  power,  then  surely  Senor  Gabriel 
Mancera  would  withstand  him  to  the  uttermost. 
Those  venerable  citizens  whom  I  saw  at  the  table 
would  have  nothing  done  that  is  irregular  ;  they 
would  not  even  take  into  account  Don  Manuel's  un- 
lucky temperament,  '  beyond  whose  grasp,'  says 
Terry's  guide-book  (p.  ccxxxiii),  6  were  the  high 
principles  of  Diaz.'  It  became  a  habit  with  Gonzalez 
to  send  down  an  adjutant  who  told  the  lottery 
officials  very  plainly  what  the  number  was  which 
on  the  next  day  would  secure  the  prize.  Of  course, 
when  such  events  are  toward  there  is  a  responsibility 
attaching  to  the  people,  and  it  seems  as  if  they  were 
in  that  dim  era  not  less  apathetic  at  the  drawing 
function  than  they  are  to-day,  when,  as  we  have 
by  this  time  gathered,  there  is  not  the  slightest  call 
for  scrutiny.   It  was  another  portion  of  Don  Manuel's 


382      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


financial  programme  which  aroused  his  fellow- 
countrymen  and  almost  brought  him  headlong  to 
disaster,  for  he  could  not  inundate  the  country  with 
his  nickel  pieces. 

No  doubt,  upon  the  16th  of  September  last  there 
was  a  scene  of  tremulous  excitement  at  the  drawing 
of  the  prize  for  500,000  dollars  Mex.  (say,  £50,000). 
The  gentleman  whom  I  have  hitherto  been  quoting 
is  as  cool  as  one  expects  :  6  That  lottery,'  he  says, 
e  has  left  a  trait  of  pleasing  memories,  because  it 
was  divided  into  fractions  and  distributed  among  our 
people  of  the  middle  class  [how  fine  are  his  investi- 
gations !],  who  should  now  be  having  the  enjoyment 
of  unhoped-for  and  desirable  tranquillity.'  But  on 
a  Friday  afternoon,  when  I,  as  Frenchmen  say, 
assisted,  it  was  at  a  very  somnolent  affair.  'Tis  true 
the  major  prize  was  not  more  than  a  thousand 
dollars,  while  the  second  largest  prizes  were  con- 
siderably less,  but  so  decrepit  was  the  audience  of 
thirty  that  the  chance  of  gaining  such  a  sum  ought 
to  have  kept  them  on  perpetual  tenterhooks.  Maybe 
they  were  exhibiting  the  gambler's  legendary  calm, 
and  as  there  was  in  them  more  Indian  blood  than 
Spanish  one  would  not  care  to  deny  the  possibility 
of  this  inhuman  conduct.  However,  it  appears  more 
probable  that  they  were  dulled  by  constant  failure. 
Many  of  them  had  been  trying,  I  could  swear  it,  to 
recuperate  their  fortunes  every  Monday,  every 
Wednesday,  every  Friday,  for  a  chain  of  years,  and 
I  should  be  surprised  if  they  had  known  the  frigid 
satisfaction  of  acquaintance  with  a  winner.  It  was 
curious  that  such  a  ragged  crew  should  have  the 
wherewithal  to  play — they  cannot  surely  be  so  morbid 
as  to  want  to  listen  always  to  the  victories  of  other 
people — and  the  wanton  days  of  Elagabalus  have 


THE  GAMBLERS  OF  MEXICO  383 


vanished,  what  time  two  lotteries  were  instituted :  for 
the  people  one,  and  one  for  the  comedians.  There 
was  no  need  to  buy  the  tickets,  and  the  prizes,  ranging 
from  a  pound  of  beef  up  to  a  hundred  gold  or  thou- 
sand silver  pieces,  were  provided  by  the  well-beloved 
Emperor. 

So  far  as  I  can  recollect  there  was,  that  Friday 
afternoon,  an  individual — and  only  one — who  made  no 
secret  of  it  that  he  was  attracted  by  the  comfort  of 
the  chairs  ;  he  slept  profoundly.  But  with  him  it 
was  quite  palpable  that  he  had  drifted  in  by  chance 
and  was  by  no  means  an  habitue,  for  he  exhibited 
an  ignorance  of  the  prevailing  customs.  When  he 
sank  into  the  chair  and  fell  asleep  he  failed  to  take 
his  hat  off ;  a  policeman  who  was  standing  at  the 
door  approached  him,  tapped  him  on  the  shoulder, 
half  awakened  him  and  pointed  at  the  hat.  Our 
friend  removed  it  with  a  gesture  of  apology,  he  bowed 
to  the  policeman  and  replaced  the  hat  upon  his  head 
and  fell  asleep.  So  it  was  necessary  to  awaken  him 
again,  which  the  policeman  did  with  tenderness,  and 
in  a  little  time  the  hat  came  permanently  off.  As 
for  the  other  members  of  the  audience — bedraggled 
women  and  a  postman  (but  I  must  say  that  he  did  not 
wear  the  guilty  look  of  one  who  plays  the  truant), 
and  a  blue-lipped  Indian  wastrel,  boys  with  unsold 
tickets  for  the  lottery,  and  one  small  urchin  whose 
equipment  would  have  needed  scarcely  other  change 
than  the  addition  of  a  bow  and  arrows  if  he  had 
desired  to  be  an  artist's  model  in  the  usual  array  of 
Cupid — all  these  people  looked  with  more  or  less 
attention  towards  the  platform.  Nearest  to  them, 
just  behind  the  railings,  were  three  pretty  page-boys, 
neat  in  blue  and  gold  ;  behind  these,  at  a  table,  were 
two  busy  clerks,  and  finally  behind  this  pair  sat  the 


384      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


presiding  gentlemen,  who  certainly  would  not  have 
found  it  easy  to  look  more  respectable.  It  is  their 
presence  that  is  wanted,  I  suppose,  and  if  they  like 
to  sleep,  as  one  did  intermittently  and  one  through- 
out the  seance,  after  he  had  patted  all  his  colleagues 
on  the  back,  it  is  their  own  concern.  Just  after  three 
o'clock  the  little  page-boy  to  the  right  of  us  took  up 
a  wineglass  and  a  bodkin,  so  too  did  the  left-hand 
page-boy,  while  the  other  one  stood  at  the  table  with 
a  wooden  frame  in  which  were  ribs  of  metal  ;  one  end 
of  the  frame  was  off.  The  right-hand  page-boy 
marched — you  cannot  otherwise  describe  his  progress 
— to  a  globe  that  was  on  his  side  of  the  platform  and 
was  larger  than  himself.  An  employe  was  turning  it 
first  one  way  then  another,  so  that  every  ball  which  it 
contained  should  fly  about  among  its  comrades. 
At  the  one  side  of  the  globe  there  was  a  shutter  which 
the  page-boy  opened,  took  a  ball  out  on  the  bodkin, 
held  the  wineglass  over  it  and  marched  back  to  the 
table.  In  the  meantime,  from  a  smaller  globe,  the  left- 
hand  page-boy  likewise  had  procured  a  ball  and  came 
back  to  the  table.  Then  the  first  boy  glanced  upon 
the  white  ball  he  had  captured,  and  in  shrill  and  rapid 
accents  cried  a  number  three  times  (though  I  could 
not  understand  him  once),  and  he  was  followed  by  the 
left  boy,  on  whose  ball  was  written  4  4.'  He  cried  : 
4  Cuatro  pesos  !  cuatro  pesos  !  cuatro  pesos  ! '  There- 
upon they  gave  their  balls  up  to  the  third  boy,  who 
transfixed  them,  opposite  each  other,  on  the  metal 
ribs,  and  so  for  something  more  than  half  an  hour 
the  process  was  continued,  being  varied  only  when 
the  left-hand  boy  brought  back  the  ball  which  had 
4  1000  '  on  it.  There  was  in  the  audience  the  flutter 
of  some  sighing,  and  a  clerk  went  over  to  a  blackboard, 
where  he  wrote  the  number  and  the  town  in  which  it 


THE  GAMBLERS  OF  MEXICO  385 


had  been  sold,  this  being  Mexico  the  capital  on  that 
particular  occasion.  As  he  chalked  it  in  his  orna- 
mental writing  he  appeared  with  every  flourish  to 
be  stabbing  at  the  wretched  audience.  Presently, 
when  all  was  over,  they  went  out  into  the  sunlight, 
and  the  sleeper  was  awakened  once  again  by  the 
policeman.  In  a  corner  of  the  room  a  list  of  the 
successful  numbers  was  in  course  of  being  printed  on 
a  hand-press,  and  again  the  good  policeman  had  to 
tap  upon  the  sleeper's  shoulder.  Each  of  the  pre- 
siding gentlemen  received  his  paper,  leaned  back  in 
his  chair,  and  let  the  middle  boy  declare  the  numbers 
as  they  stood  inside  his  frame.  The  one  who  hitherto 
had  slept  was  gradually  waking  up,  and  as  the  busi- 
ness terminated  he  arose  and  patted  his  three  col- 
leagues on  the  back  and  patted  an  adjacent  page-boy 
and  made  off.  Then  the  policeman  sat  him  down 
beside  the  sleeper  of  the  audience,  persuaded  him  to 
leave  the  room,  and  out  they  went  together,  arm  in 
arm.  As  they  were  walking  through  the  passage 
towards  the  street  they  brushed  against  the  women 
and  the  stalwart  men  who  waved  the  tickets  for  the 
next  approaching  function  to  and  fro.  '  Some  thou- 
sands of  our  countryfolk,'  says  the  historian  who 
never  fails  us,  '  are  unfortunately  in  a  state  of  destitu- 
tion on  account  of  physical  defects,  or  illness  or  the 
weight  of  years  ;  they  have  discovered  a  commodious 
livelihood  in  offering  our  tickets.  If  they  were  to  be 
deprived  of  this  good  trade  then  it  is  certain  their 
serenity  would  vanish  and  they  would  perforce  have 
to  submit  themselves  to  taking  up  the  life  of  mendi- 
cants, instead  of  being  able  to  adapt  themselves  to 
honourable  methods  such  as  that  which  we  are  now 
discussing.'  .  .  .  Ah,  well,  perhaps  it  would  be  in- 
tolerant to  think  of  deprecating  the  persistent  traffic 
2  c 


386      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


which  these  people  ply  in  all  the  most  frequented 
parts  of  Mexico.  '  Diez  mil  pesos  !  Sorteos  de  hoy  ! 
Diez  mil  pesos  !  Diez  mil  pesos  !  '  and  one  day  in 
the  Street  of  the  Holy  Ghost  I  listened  to  a  famous 
bull-fighter  who  was  exasperated.  6  Do  you  think,* 
said  he,  4  that  God  created  money  so  that  I  should 
spend  it  thus  ?  ' 

And  now  we  come  to  the  philosophy  of  all  this 
matter.  One  may  argue  that  there  is  none,  and  that 
people  gamble  in  the  Mexican  Republic  for  the  self- 
same reasons  as  they  gamble  elsewhere.  But  accord- 
ing to  a  certain  school,  the  Mexicans  demand  con- 
sideration that  is  quite  peculiar.  They  are  given, 
so  'tis  said,  to  gambling  on  account  of  imperfections 
in  their  agricultural  economy.  Wide  stretches  of  the 
land  are  always  rushing  from  the  one  extreme  into 
the  other,  from  extreme  fertility  to  unproductiveness. 
In  four-and-twenty  hours  the  people  pass  from  wealth 
to  misery  ;  their  wheat  is  all  destroyed,  their  flocks 
are  dying,  and  underneath  the  wheel  of  fortune 
they  are  helpless  if  it  does  not  take  another  turn, 
which  consummation  is  not  to  be  brought  about 
except  by  gambling.  Mexico  is  vast,  and  on  the  one 
hand  there  are  tracts  of  country  which  unroll  a 
savage  fruitfulness — such  as  the  part  of  Coahuila, 
where  it  is  sufficient  for  the  cotton  to  be  planted 
once  in  ten  years,  and  the  district  near  to  Irapuato, 
where,  a  mile  and  more  above  the  sea,  one  has 
throughout  the  year  crop  after  crop  of  strawberries ; 
and  so  the  jungle  round  a  rubber  clearing  where  the 
tentacles  of  vegetation  try  to  choke  all  human  effort 
and  if  they  are  cut  will  grow  again  and  at  the  rate  of 
half  an  inch  a  day.  Then,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
have  the  desert  places,  where  the  summer's  heat  or 
ghastly  whirlwinds  or  the  dust  goes  dancing,  but 


THE  GAMBLERS  OF  MEXICO  387 


where  cactus  grows  and  nothing  else.  In  either  sort 
of  territory  you  will  know  what  is  to  be  expected  ; 
it  will  surely  happen ;  but  a  great  deal  of  the  land  is 
subject  to  the  vacillations  we  have  mentioned.  And 
the  causes  are  less  difficult  to  find  than  to  prevent. 
It  is  so  much  a  question  of  the  rain  and  wind.  If 
there  should  be  a  scarcity  of  rain  then  will  the  river- 
beds be  dry  (from  1887  to  1895  the  north  of  Nuevo 
Leon  was  afflicted  with  a  drought,  as  was  the  llano 
district  of  Chihuahua),  and  if  the  north  wind  blow 
too  strongly  in  the  months  of  August  or  September 
then  the  cornfields  will  be  devastated.  But  the  very 
agents  that  would  bring  the  rain  and  temper  the 
ferocious  wind,  those  noble  slaves  have  been  re- 
moved, for,  as  in  their  own  country  so  in  Mexico,  the 
Spaniards  never  put  a  check  upon  deforestation,  and 
a  great  part  of  the  central  plateau  is  denuded.  Wind 
and  rain,  they  come  and  go,  nor  can  the  flying  of  a 
snipe  be  more  capricious.  What  a  country  !  Portions 
of  it  change  so  little  that  we  have  the  tale  of  a  Chicago 
woman  who  came  down  to  live  in  this  eternal  spring, 
and  as  the  mercury  of  the  barometer  did  not  so  much 
as  tremble,  she  was  certain  that  the  instrument  was 
out  of  order  and  she  broke  it.  In  those  other  regions 
that  we  have  described,  a  labourer  would  formerly 
have  chosen  one  of  three  professions  :  brigandage, 
rebellion,  gambling.    Now  the  former — 

Passant,  ne  pleure  point  son  sort, 
Car  s'il  vivait  tu  serais  mort — 

has  been  more  or  less  blotted  out  by  the  rurales,  that 
ubiquitous  and  celebrated  corps  (and,  by  the  way,  this 
6  blotted'  is  a  rather  suitable  expression,  as  the  brigands, 
so  we  learn,  are  frequently  absorbed  into  the  grey  ranks 
of  their  quondam  foe) ;  rebellion  does  not  always  offer 


388      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


the  antique  inducements,  and  the  disappointed  labourer 
falls  back  on  gambling.  He  is  not  restricted  to  the 
lottery. 

There  is  said  to  be  a  time  for  all  things,  and  in 
Mexico  it  is  the  local  feria  [the  fair]  when  every 
gambler  is  supposed  to  let  his  instincts  revel.  He 
can  start  to  play  soon  after  sunrise,  and,  if  he  should 
be  unfortunate,  can  visit  now  and  then  the  image  in 
whose  honour  all  the  festival  is  being  held.  I  need 
not  say  that  with  so  many  pilgrims  at  the  shrine — 
San  Juan  de  los  Lagos,  for  example,  welcomes  more 
than  60,000  in  November — it  will  be  demanded  of 
each  person  that  his  attitude  should  be  correct.  If 
he  attempt  to  imitate  the  farmer  who,  despairing 
that  the  rain  would  ever  come,  precipitated  the 
poor  image  to  the  ground  and  smashed  it  (after  which 
the  rain  fell),  then  he  would  himself  be  torn  asunder. 
Mexico  is  thickly  populated  with  these  images,  but 
as  the  wonder-working  reputation  of  them  all  is 
irreproachable,  this  would  be  no  excuse.  The  feria 
possesses  also  a  commercial  side,  and  surely  gamblers 
ought  to  recognise  that  there  they  have  another 
chance  of  getting  water  from  the  rocks.  So  strange 
a  mingling  is  there  of  celestial  and  mundane  busi- 
ness. But  whichever  of  these  two,  or  if  it  should  be 
gambling,  that  has  more  adherents  in  the  villages, 
'tis  natural  that  gambling  and  the  kindred  pleasures 
should  predominate  in  towns  which  have  a  larger 
quantity  of  temples  dedicated  to  the  other  two  pur- 
suits, and  thus  throughout  the  year  have  given 
people  opportunities  to  satisfy  their  appetite.  Appeal 
is  made  to  all  the  gamblers — there  be  games  for  men 
who  want  to  make  a  use,  comparatively  speaking,  of 
intelligence,  and  there  be  games  for  men  who  have 
no  such  desire.    And  these  are  the  divisions  of  the 


THE  GAMBLERS  OF  MEXICO  389 


people,  for  if  the  most  woebegone  pelado  came  to 
join  the  table  of  the  Governor's  son  (i.e.  of  intellect) 
he  would  not  be  rejected,  if  he  had  some  money. 
There  is  animation  in  the  booth  and  in  another  one 
there  is  a  fine  repast  (considering  that  it  is  gratis), 
in  another  one  is  music. 

It  so  happens  that  a  Turk,  who  is  amongst  the 
most  renowned  proprietors  of  the  Republic,  walked 
across  the  frontier  of  Chihuahua  many  years  ago  with 
a  performing  bear.  Now  he  has  risen  into  making 
people  dance.  His  wealth  is  said  to  be  terrific,  but  he 
does  not  cease  to  drag  his  corpulence  through  North 
and  Central  Mexico,  while  he  is  having  both  his  sons 
brought  up  at  college.  And  he  does  considerable 
good,  not  only  by  the  money  which  he  pays  into  the 
town's  exchequer—for,  like  Monsieur  Bergeret's 
sagacious  sister,  he  is  apt  to  find  that  space,  if  there 
be  such  a  thing  or  not,  is  very  dear — but  is  a  bene- 
factor also  in  that  he  provides  employment  for  a 
troupe  of  acrobats  or  minstrels.  In  the  Mexican 
Republic  there  are  numerous  fine  theatres  but 
seemingly  no  actors,  and  the  consequence  is  that  we 
patronise  the  deadly  cinematograph.  I  vow  that  I 
would  rather  see  the  worst  of  men  and  women  take 
the  stage  than  have  mechanical  devices,  for,  despite 
themselves,  the  men  and  women  are  a  noble  order  of 
creation.  And  this  may  be  stretched  into  applying 
to  the  prompter,  on  the  rare  occasions  when  the 
stage  is  occupied  by  flesh  and  blood,  although  he  will 
insist  on  smoking  palpably  throughout  the  whole 
performance.  As  he  takes  the  part  of  every  person 
in  the  play,  from  faithless  lover  to  the  girl,  this 
smoking  is  deplorable.  It  would  be  too  much  to 
expect  that  he  should  make  the  necessary  altera- 
tions in  his  voice,  as  he,  regardless  whether  on  the 


390     MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


stage  they  have  been  said  or  not,  reads  out  the  words 
— your  poet  will  remind  you  that  the  words  are  more 
important  than  the  voice  in  which  they  happen  to  be 
spoken — but  one  does  protest  against  the  smoke  of 
those  cigars.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  dramatic  art 
is  at  an  ebb  in  Mexico,  and  certainly  I  would  not 
like  to  say  that  it  will  be  improved  by  building  in  the 
capital  that  gorgeous  theatre  which  never  will  be 
filled,  and  round  the  corner  there  are  many,  many 
folk  whose  stomachs  never  have  been  filled.  In 
Mexico  the  art  of  acting  does  not  flourish,  and  the 
man  who  fosters  acrobats  is  worthy  of  much  praise. 
So  may  the  Turk  continue  to  perambulate  the 
country,  building  an  oasis  with  his  dirty  awnings  and 
his  lamp-lit  booths  and  his  guitars.  If  there  is 
immorality  about  the  piles  of  money  that  are  whisk- 
ing back  into  the  lamplight,  who  would  not  prefer 
to  be  immoral  in  a  gambling  booth  than  moral  at  a 
cinematograph  ?  Far  be  it  from  us  to  complain  that 
cinematographs  in  Mexico  do  not,  like  those  in 
France,  give  a  display  of  ladies'  underclothing — we 
have  it  on  the  word  of  Madame  Calderon  de  la  Barca 
that  the  diamond-bepowdered  ladies  often  had  this 
part  of  their  apparel,  if  existing,  torn  and  dirty  ; 
and  it  is  the  superficial  things  that  have  been  changed 
in  the  Republic — but  these  cinematographs  commit 
the  gravest  crime  of  all ;  they  are  untruthful,  since, 
according  to  their  showing,  virtue  is  triumphant 
always. 

Monte,  roulette,  lotto  are  the  chief  games  ;  it  is 
curious  to  see  a  circle  of  adults,  though  of  the  poorer 
classes,  solemnly  seated  at  their  lotto  cards  and 
wait  until  the  fish  or  bird  is  called.  However,  there 
be  other  games  which  foreigners  less  reputable  than 
our  Turk  have  introduced — and  to  the  wrath  of 


THE  GAMBLERS  OF  MEXICO  391 


Mexicans.  A  newspaper — '  La  Lima  de  Vulcano  ' 
[Vulcan's  File] — in  its  issue  of  the  25th  April,  1838, 
was  righteously  indignant,  saying  that — 

The  devil  goes  about  endeavouring  to  tempt  the 
Mexicans ;  when  families  are  at  their  poorest  then  the 
greater  spectacles  are  given  so  that  money  should  be 
spent  on  them  which  is  required  for  nourishment ;  and 
as  the  spectacles  are  new  the  public  want  excessively 
to  see  them.  The  foreigners,  whose  grand  and  unique 
object  is  to  get  our  money,  are  preparing  for  next  Sun- 
day the  pageant  of  a  formidable  tiger  that  will  struggle 
with  a  bull  whose  horns  are  blunted  and  will  tear  the 
bull  to  pieces  in  the  ring.  .  .  .  No  doubt  the  fight  will 
be  unequal,  very  much  to  the  advantage  of  the  owners 
of  the  tiger,  since  it  will  receive  no  wound  whatever. 
The  Government,  for  moral  and  political  reasons,  should 
forbid  this  kind  of  horrid  spectacle,  because  in  this 
way  people  grow  to  be  familiar  with  scenes  of  horror. 
...  If  Mexicans  have  been  endowed  by  God  with 
sweetness  of  character  and  with  compassion  that  is 
boundless,  why  shall  this  most  happy  nature  be  effaced 
by  that  which  turns  it  into  something  barbarous  and 
sanguinary  ? 

I  believe  it  was  the  bull  which  proved  success- 
ful, as  he  did  at  San  Luis  Potosi  seven  or  eight 
years  ago  when  he  was  matched  against  a  circus 
lion.  In  the  bull-ring  of  the  capital,  about  as  long 
ago,  there  was  a  similar  engagement :  each  of  the 
two  animals  was  slightly  scratched  and  then  the 
lion  laid  him  down  beside  the  bull  in  perfect 
friendliness.  If  '  Vulcan's  File  '  were  still  at  large, 
delivering  shrewd  cuts,  it  possibly  might  rage  at 
foreigners  for  having  first  insinuated  this  idea  into 
the  sweet  minds  of  the  Mexicans.  When  we  turn  to 
less  exotic  animals — to  horses — it  will  gratify  you  to 
be  told  that  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  is  a 


392      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


blessed  nation  which  has  laid  upon  its  shoulders  one 
of  the  great  missions  of  the  English,  for  in  Mexico 
there  have  arisen  some  of  those  enthusiasts  who  do 
not  spare  themselves  the  trouble  of  long  afternoons 
upon  a  racecourse  solely  to  improve  the  breed  of 
horses.  One  can  see  the  day  draw  near  when  such 
considerations  will  be  smothered  by  the  ruling  passion 
of  this  people,  but  as  yet  the  sport  remains  in  almost 
English  purity.  Some  few  regard  the  horses  as  mere 
counters  in  a  gamble.  One  may  see,  however,  at  a 
meeting  that  as  yet  the  sportsmen  have  been  barely 
touched  by  this  most  evil  and  outlandish  parasite  of 
an  idea,  for  when  two  favourites  (both  owned  by 
favourites)  were  beaten  by  a  sheer  outsider  at  the 
first  race  in  the  6  Derby  Mexicano '  there  was  an 
extraordinary  demonstration  of  delight :  the  people 
darted  in  and  out,  ran  hither,  thither,  flung  their 
hats  into  the  air  and  uttered  incoherent  cries,  for 
they  were  glad  that  Mexico  contained  a  breed  of  such 
fair  horses.  With  regard  to  cocks,  the  men  who  write 
of  bygone  Mexico  are  half  inclined  to  show  their 
grief  because  the  cock-fight  is  no  longer  tolerated. 
s  It  was  picturesque,'  they  say,  '  to  see  the  cognoscenti, 
wealthy  men  and  poor  men — clustered  round  the  ring, 
all  eager  for  the  battle.  It  was  fine  to  see  the  two 
cocks  being  held,  their  beaks  not  further  from  each 
other  than  the  width  of  half  a  dozen  hairs.  Indeed, 
it  was  a  spectacle  !  And  then  a  great  man  would 
come  driving  past,  and  leaning  from  his  carriage  he 

would  register  a  bet.  Now  everything  is  changed  ' 

However,  if  these  writers  would  omit  to  go  to  church 
for  one  sole  Sunday  morning  they  would  never  more 
be  so  despondent,  since  the  custom  does  not  seem 
to  be  in  any  danger  of  neglect.  The  towns  and 
villages  of  Mexico  support  it  most  religiously,  and  so 


THE  GAMBLERS  OF  MEXICO  393 


do  certain  strangers.  One  would  think,  without 
referring  to  a  blue-book,  that  the  articles  imported 
from  the  British  Isles  would  take  the  shape  of  hard- 
ware and  machinery  ;  but  there  is  a  demand  for 
fighting-cocks,  and  whether  it  was  due  to  consular 
advice  or  private  inspiration,  anyhow,  there  landed  at 
Tampico  recently  a  British  gentleman  with  fifty 
cocks.  He  must  have  been  replete  with  prudence, 
for  he  would  not  live  upon  the  country  ;  to  sustain 
himself  he  carried  many  hundredweight  of  the  com- 
modities of  Messrs.  Fortnum  and  Mason.  Such  a 
man  would  probably  not  need  to  be  exhorted  by  a 
Consul  that  he  should  go  through  the  world  with  open 
eyes.  The  cock-fight  in  itself  is  unattractive,  being 
but  a  matter  of  some  seconds.  As  the  one  bird  flies 
across  the  other  he  brings  into  play  the  fearful  spur 
that  has  been  fastened  to  his  leg  ;  a  mass  of  feather 
tumbles  down  and  many  pesos  change  their  owner. 
People  who  do  not  object  to  gambling  but  to  foolish 
gambling  may  denounce  the  rashness  of  this  kind  of 
bettor,  since  the  first  appearance  of  a  combatant  is 
all  too  probable  to  be  the  last,  and  one  can  scarcely 
have  enjoyed  the  chance  of  learning  the  good  qualities 
of  any  bird.  Yet  this  is  not  the  case,  for  each  of  them 
was  put  through  trials  ere  he  came  into  the  ring,  and 
some  of  them  have  happity  survived  a  full-dress 
battle. 

Who  can  say  that  cock-fights  are  immune  from 
fraud  ?  It  seems  to  be  established  that  the  graceful 
Basque  game  of  'pelota'  is  like  a  religion — not 
precisely  what  its  Founder  meant  that  it  should  be. 
One  is  sufficiently  disturbed  by  those  who  in  the 
scarlet  headgear  cf  the  Basque  pace  up  and  down 
between  the  audience  and  the  athletes,  strenuously 
shouting  what  they  are  prepared  to  lay.   One  is  still 


394      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


more  disturbed  by  knowing  that,  besides  the  gods, 
there  are  some  mortals  who  could  tell  you  which  of 
these  fine-looking  men  will  score  the  thirty  aces. 
Thus  the  game  is  not  as  dignified  as  racquets,  neither 
does  it  call  for  so  much  skill,  because  one  side- wall's 
place  is  taken  by  the  bookmakers  and  audience, 
while  insufficient  use  is  made  of  the  remaining  side- 
wall.  But  it  is  a  pretty  sight  to  see  the  players  catch 
the  ball  inside  the  sort  of  basket  fin  that  is  attached 
on  to  their  arm  by  thongs.  And  having  caught  it 
with  extreme  adroitness  they  will  jerk  it  back  towards 
the  end- wall.  There  is  now  only  one  court  in  the 
whole  Republic,  yet  I  had  a  lodging  in  the  very  street, 
and  frequently  at  midnight  when  the  uproar  made  me 
lie  in  bed  and  think,  I  used  to  speculate  as  to  the 
quantity  of  irrigation  which  will  have  to  be  before 
pelota  gamblers  sink  to  rest.  That  philosophic 
reason  for  the  prevalence  of  gambling  can  perhaps  not 
move  us  if  we  are  not  anxious  to  find  any  reason  for 
the  prevalence  and  possible  decay  thereof,  but  we  are 
dealing  with  a  land  in  which  the  Government  is  apt 
to  recommend  philosophy.  On  a  December  night, 
a  little  over  seventy  years  ago,  there  was  a  session  of 
the  governmental  council  when  the  country,  they 
concluded,  had  arrived  at  such  a  pass  that  radical  and 
most  extraordinary  measures  had  to  be  adopted, 
measures  that  would  seize  on  the  imagination  of  the 
public  and  distract  them  from  their  civil  strife,  so 
that  all  Mexicans  in  order  to  unite  against  the  common 
foe  should  give  each  other  an  embrace  both  philo- 
sophic and  fraternal. 

But  there  are  for  Mexicans  so  many  different 
modes  of  gambling  that  it  will  be  arduous  to  stop 
them  all,  and  whether  they  are  due  to  agricultural  or 
other  causes.    The  apologist  whom  we  have  quoted 


THE  GAMBLERS  OF  MEXICO 


£95 


says  that  it  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  anyone 
to  land  the  biggest  prizes  in  successive  drawings,  so 
that  every  time  there  is  a  shower  of  fortune  sprinkled 
on  a  multitude  of  homes.  He  does  not  think  the 
lottery  should  be  suppressed,  whatever  happens  to 
pelota  or  the  cock-fight  or  the  horse-race  or  the 
splendid  Turkish  enterprise.  The  lottery  distributes 
more  than  half  a  million  sterling  every  year,  from 
which,  he  says,  it  follows  that  a  lot  of  well-placed 
families  in  the  Republic  owe  the  basis  of  their  fortune 
to  a  prize.  And  very  often  they  would  be  unable  to 
secure  this  wealth  by  working  for  it,  even  at  the  cost 
of  great  exertions — d  pesar  de  grandes  esfuerzos.  Here 
we  can  afford  to  smile  in  a  superior  fashion,  seeing 
that  some  of  our  ducal  families,  who  owe  the  basis  of 
their  fortune  to  a  foundress,  can  maintain  that  work 
and  much  exertion  were  required.  Of  course,  he  does 
not  say  that  fortune  always  favours  estimable  folk  ; 
this  theory  would  have  been  absurd.  He  says  that  as 
the  drawings  multiply  themselves  indefinitely,  it  is 
clear  that  on  the  transpiration  of  a  certain  time  all 
those  or  nearly  all  who  buy  the  tickets  will  have 
changed  their  social  sphere  por  medio  de  un  premio 
[by  means  of  one  prize].  We  may  say  that  if  the 
sudden  wealth  accruing  to  a  family  be  vast,  there  is 
the  fear  that  they  will  not  be  equal  to  the  new 
responsibilities;  but  as  one  prize  in  Mexico's  State 
Lottery  is,  as  a  rule,  four  pesos  (rather  under  8s.  6d.), 
the  social  sphere  of  the  successful  family  will  not  be 
revolutionised.  Our  friend  sees  so  much  benefit 
come  for  so  many  people  in  this  manner  that  he  longs 
to  see  societies  begin  to  form  themselves  whose  object 
would  be  to  contribute  quantities  of  money  for  the 
periodical  advantage  of  the  members.  One  may  urge 
that  all  the  quantities  would  have  been  paid  by 


396      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


members,  and  our  friend  acknowledges  with  perfect 
candour  that  it  is  so.  Let  them  pay,  says  he,  to  make 
the  fortune  of  the  lucky  ones,  and  let  them  persevere 
until  they  all  or  nearly  all  have  had  some  luck. 
Sooner  or  later  it  must  come  about.  And  if  there  be 
objections  that  some  people  vitiate  themselves  by 
sacrificing  all  or  nearly  all  their  wages  or  emoluments 
or  income  to  the  purchasing  of  tickets  animosos  de 
obtener  uno  de  los  grandes  premios  [in  a  spirited 
attempt  to  gain  one  of  the  largest  prizes],  well,  that 
which  results  in  other  hazardous  diversions  could 
not,  he  submits,  occur  in  this  one  ;  if  it  should  do, 
then  it  would  be  truly  wonderful  and  rare.  All  those, 
he  says,  who  buy  the  tickets  know  quite  well  that 
there  is  no  luck  in  the  number  of  the  tickets,  but  in 
the  proprietor  ;  and  if  one  take  a  single  ticket  or  two 
tickets  or  three,  yet  always  will  the  big  prize  be 
secured  by  that  man  who  of  all  the  buyers  has  the 
greatest  luck.  I  do  not  think  we  can  discover  any 
flaw  in  this  remark  ;  it  is  extremely  sound.  And 
very  soothing,  for  the  big  prize  is  not  conquered  by 
the  big  battalions.  If  you  want,  says  he,  to  have 
the  big  prize,  then  one  ticket  is  enough,  and  if  you 
persevere  with  tickets,  he  has  said,  then  you  may 
win  a  prize.  What  therefore  seems  to  be  the  fruit  of 
his  experience  is  that  one  should  play  frequently  and 
humbly.  He  disdains  to  waste  a  word  upon  the 
philosophic  school,  and  it  will  be  confessed  that  even 
though  the  irrigation  works  are  of  importance — 
at  the  Yaqui  river,  for  example,  it  is  calculated  that 
the  water  will  be  dammed  back  for  a  distance  of 
40  miles,  that  the  breast-wall  of  the  dam  will  be  of 
concrete  and  185  feet  high,  that  400,000  barrels  of 
cement  will  be  made  use  of,  that  1000  men  will  be 
employed  for  over  two  years  in  construction  of  the 


THE  GAMBLERS  OF  MEXICO  397 


dam  and  ditches — much  water  will  have  need  to 
flow  across  the  land  before  the  Mexican  declines  to 
gamble.  And  there  are  parts  of  Mexico,  the  very 
fertile  and  unfertile  parts,  to  which  this  philosophic 
theory  cannot  be  applied. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


SAINT  AND  MINSTRELS 

Any  saint  who  has  been  sacrificed  upon  a  gridiron, 
as  befell  Saint  Lawrence,  will  look  sorrowfully  down 
from  his  abiding-place  if  they  who  worship  at  a  shrine 
of  his  come  with  a  sacrifice.  Saint  Lawrence  suffers 
pain  enough  to  see  that  every  wooden,  stucco, 
leaden,  brazen,  plaster  and  more  precious  image  of 
him  has  a  little  gridiron  in  its  hand.  Who  knows  if 
some  fanatic  devotee  will  not  be  moved  thereby  to 
slaughter  ?  And  Saint  Lawrence,  gentle  youth, 
looks  down  and  wrings  his  hands.  That  martyrdom  he 
underwent  in  Rome  has  been  so  much  exaggerated. 
To  be  sure,  while  he  was  undergoing  it,  he  ceased 
to  live ;  but  Publius  Licinius  Valerianus,  Roman 
Emperor  (253-260)  was  no  less  outwitted  by  the 
lonely  saint  than  by  the  King  of  Kings  of  Iran  and 
non-Iran,  the  triumphant  Shapur.  The  majority  of 
men,  to  whom  it  is  not  given  to  accomplish  mighty 
deeds  on  earth,  complain  that  they  were  born  too 
early  or  too  late  ;  and  it  is  only  the  minority  of  these 
who  put  away  their  gloominess  and  always  hope  by 
some  fine  death  to  compensate  for  a  comparatively 
fruitless  life  ;  and  of  these  cheerful  ones  it  is  but  one 
or  two  in  every  thousand  who  obtain  the  glorious 
departure.  Publius  Licinius  Valerianus  had  no  reason 
for  suspecting  that  the  young  Archdeacon  Lawrence 
had  a  mortal  ailment,  for  he  was  distinguished,  so  we 

398 


SAINT  AND  MINSTRELS 


399 


read,  not  by  the  flower  of  his  youth  alone,  but  by  the 
beauty  of  his  age.  The  vigorous  old  Emperor  did  not 
inquire  if  he  was  not  so  beautiful  because  he  was 
consumptive,  and  we  are  not  even  told  that  a  suspicion 
came  into  his  ancient,  heathen  breast  when  that  the 
spirit  of  the  saint  ascended  from  the  harmless  gridiron 
into  heaven.  To  prolong  the  victim's  torment,  very 
little  fires  had  been  placed  beneath  him,  and  he  died — 
we  may  presume  of  a  consumption — when  his  body 
had  been  scarcely  damaged.  The  cathedral  of  Nancy 
has  a  rib  '  which  was  preserved  all  through  the 
Revolution;  it  was  recognised,'  so  say  the  records, 
1  and  approved  by  Mgr.  Ormond  on  the  30th  June, 
1803.  The  Church  of  Bouxieres-aux-Dames,  near 
Nancy,  has  a  fragment  of  a  rib  of  the  same  saint.' 
Then  at  Rome  6  his  ribs  are  at  St.  Peter's,  at  the 
Church  of  Twelve  Apostles,  at  the  Church  of  Holy 
Cross  ' — whose  nave  appears  to  be  supported  by 
invisible  columns,  since  we  read  that  6  the  nave  was 
originally  borne  by  twelve  antique  columns  of  granite, 
of  which  eight  only  are  now  visible  ' — '  at  the  churches 
of  St.  Mary  at  the  Gate  and  St.  Mary  of  the  Angels 
and  St.  Praxedis.  A  rib  of  Saint  Lawrence  is  at 
Montreuil  sur  Mer,'  and  most  of  his  body,  of  course, 
reposes  in  the  patriarchal  church  that  Constantine 
built  over  it  beyond  the  walls  of  Rome.  Well  might 
Saint  Lawrence  have  a  smiling  face  upon  the  gridiron 
when  he  taunted  the  rough  soldier.  He  was  going 
up  to  heaven  by  a  splendid  gate,  and  he  would  be 
depicted  in  a  hundred  thousand  monuments  and 
windows,  while  it  was  reserved  for  Publius  to  have 
his  portrait  and  the  portrait  of  his  royal  captor  hewn 
— oh,  the  humiliation  ! — hewn  by  Roman  subjects  on 
the  rocks  of  Persis. 

Saint  Lawrence  used  to  have  a  good,  sardonic 


400      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


humour,  like  his  country-fellow  Goya  ;  for  he  told  the 
Emperor  Valerianus  that  in  three  days  he  could  bring 
him  a  supply  of  what  he  wanted,  namely,  treasures  of 
the  Church.  Saint  Lawrence  did  not  only  help  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  and  dispense  the  sacred  mysteries 
and  cherish  the  infirm,  the  indigent  and  consecrated 
virgins — which  are  duties  appertaining  to  a  common 
deacon — but  he  managed  the  ecclesiastical  domains 
and  treasures,  the  oblations  and  the  houses  of  the 
Church,  since  these  were  at  the  time  the  recognised 
archidiaconal  functions.  'Bring  the  treasures  to 
me  ! '  cried  the  Emperor,  and  Lawrence  gathered  all 
the  blind,  the  lame  and  other  wretched  folk  together. 
At  the  palace,  '  August  Prince,'  he  said,  '  behold  our 
treasures  !  These  be  everlasting  treasures  which  have 
increase  always  and  may  be  discovered  everywhere 
and  be  possessed  by  everyone.'  This  was  immediately 
before  they  laid  him  on  the  gridiron.  With  his 
notable  supply  of  humour  he  was  yet  a  kindly  saint, 
an  altogether  pleasant  comrade.  He  would  always 
intercede  for  men  and  women  if  it  was  with  bloody 
sacrifice  or  with  a  song  that  they  approached  his 
image.  Notwithstanding  that  he  loathed  the  former, 
he  invariably  did  his  utmost  for  the  supplicant,  let 
him  be  blind  as  was  the  person  whom  he  once  had 
cured  at  Rome  inside  the  lodging  of  Narcissus,  let  the 
supplicant  have  chronic  headaches  even  as  the  widow 
whom  he  long  ago  had  cured  inside  the  catacomb  and 
let  the  supplicant  be  sore  afflicted  as  were  they  to 
whom  he  once  had  meted  out  encouragement  beside 
the  Cloaca  Maxima.  What  he  regrets  now  most  of 
all  in  the  celestial  habitation  is  that  very  frequently  his 
intercession  is  of  slight  avail.  And  then  he  thinks  of 
his  imperfect  life  ;  that  he  deceived  the  rough,  old 
Emperor  has  not,  so  far  as  one  may  surmise,  been  put 


SAINT  AND  MINSTRELS 


401 


down  against  him,  since  Valerianus  had  backslided 
terribly  :  '  His  palace,'  says  Eusebius,  '  was  full  of 
worshippers  of  the  true  God  ;  you  would  have  taken 
it  rather  for  a  church  with  its  different  ministers  than 
for  a  profane  dwelling.  About  the  year  257  he  was 
obliged  to  march  towards  the  east,  as  the  barbarians 
invaded  all  that  part  of  his  demesne.  It  was  his 
fortune  also  to  behold  his  army  and  some  goodly 
provinces  made  desolate  by  plague,  so  that  his  mind 
was  much  affected.'  But  the  tribulations  which  you 
have  to  suffer  will  not  warrant  you  to  step  aside  from 
Christian  virtue  ;  they  should,  on  the  contrary,  but 
fortify  your  faith.  To  one  believer  there  shall  be 
allotted  fiery  furnaces,  while  to  another  one  there 
falls  a  trial  of  the  spirit,  and  if  he  should  be  a  Roman 
ruler  of  Valerian's  time  it  is  with  haughty  Persians 
and  the  plague  that  he  may  hope  to  be  confronted. 
Even  if  the  trial  had  been  grievous,  if  the  Persians 
had  been  still  more  haughty  and  the  plague  more 
virulent,  the  Emperor  should  not  have  had  recourse 
to  magic  and  to  the  divines  of  Egypt.  Their  pre- 
scriptions, which  he  gradually  followed,  sent  him  into 
the  pernicious  path  and  always  further,  so  that — we 
can  only  judge  with  human  understanding — it  would 
scarcely  be  unpleasant  to  the  true  God  if  a  worshipper 
deceived  him.  But  Saint  Lawrence  brooded  on  his 
other  flaws,  on  those  which  might  account  for  the 
complete  and  painful  lack  of  issue  which  attended 
many  of  his  intercessions.  When  the  Pope,  his  master, 
happy  Sixtus,  stood  upon  the  eve  of  martyrdom  he 
had  importuned  him.  4  Where  do  you  go,  my  father,' 
he  exclaimed,  4  without  your  child  ?  What  have  you 
found  in  me  that  angers  you  ?  Can  you  believe  me 
capable  of  cowardice  or  feebleness  ?  Oh,  try  me  of 
your  grace,  and  you  will  see  that  I  am  no  unfaithful 

2  D 


402     MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


servant.  You  withhold  from  me  to-day  that  honour 
which  is  the  supreme  one,  of  mingling  my  blood  with 
yours.  Oh,  father,  have  you  no  misgivings  that  if  men 
will  praise  the  courage  of  your  martyrdom  they  yet 
may  blame  your  conduct  for  abandoning  in  this  way 
your  disciple  ?  Verily,  the  palm  which  in  your 
presence  I  shall  gain  shall  be  an  ornament  for  you,  and 
this  my  triumph  shall  be  yours.'  Aye,  thus  he  had 
importuned  Sixtus  and  he  had  deserved  the  holy  one's 
reproof,  which  is  reported  unto  all  men  by  Saint 
Ambrose.  '  I  do  not  abandon  you,  my  son,  but  the 
faith  is  calling  you  to  greater  combats.  I  am  broken 
by  the  years,  but  you  are  in  the  flower  of  youth  and 
in  the  beauty  of  your  age.  So  you  shall  have  a 
triumph  far  transcending  mine  in  glory.  Cease  then  to 
bewail  your  lot.'  It  was  deplorable  that  he  should 
not  have  been  resigned  to  whatsoever  was  prepared. 
And  had  he  not  deceived  the  blissful  Pontiff,  in  that  he 
refrained  from  laying  bare  to  him,  as  to  Valerianus, 
that  he  was  afflicted  with  a  mortal  malady  and  that 
the  soul  would  leave  his  frame  before  the  little  fires 
could  burn  it,  yes,  before  they  had  consumed  a  single 
rib  of  him  ? 

We  have  a  way  of  thinking  that  the  saints  are  never 
visited  by  gloomy,  introspective  thoughts  ;  but  now 
perhaps  as  we  reflect  upon  the  ex-archdeacon  as  he 
wanders  to  and  fro  in  constant  agony  of  mind,  we 
shall  regard  him  with  a  fellow-feeling.  And  it  is  as  if 
a  little  fire  burned  always  in  his  heart,  because  the 
pious  supplicant  on  earth,  if  he  be  disappointed  in  a 
prayer,  takes  the  blame  upon  himself,  acknowledging 
that  if  he  were  a  better  and  less  faulty  man  the  inter- 
cession of  the  saint  would  probably  have  been 
successful. 

Poor  Saint  Lawrence  !    But  when  he  was  looking 


Plateresque  Facade 

of  the  old  convent  church  of  Santa  Monica  at  Guadalajara. 


SAINT  AND  MINSTRELS  403 


down,  the  second  Friday  morning  of  last  May,  into  a 
church  of  Western  Mexico  at  nine  o'clock,  he  was 
oppressed  by  none  of  these  dark  ruminations.  He 
was  but  the  kindly  saint,  the  humorous  observer,  and 
it  did  him  all  the  good  to  see  a  man  with  bird-cages 
inside  the  church.  This  man  was  rather  squat,  a 
placid  peasant,  middle-aged  and  plain,  a  modest 
person  ;  when  he  wanted  to  suspend  a  cage  upon  a 
nail  beside  the  altar  of  Saint  Lawrence  he  could  not 
have  done  so  but  for  standing  on  a  chair.  He  also 
took  the  chair  into  the  middle  of  the  nave,  climbed 
on  to  it  and  hung  another  cage  upon  a  wire  which  had 
been  fastened  to  the  ceiling.  As  he  awkwardly 
adjusted  it  a  stream  of  water  fell  against  him  and  the 
pale  canary  started  singing,  heedless  of  the  wasted 
water.  When  the  peasant  stepped  on  to  the  floor  again 
the  cage  swung  sideways,  but  the  bird  did  not  sing 
any  bitter  notes.  The  meadow-lark  inside  the  first 
cage  sang  divinely.  And  it  was  not  long  before  the 
cages  had,  all  five  of  them,  been  lifted  to  their  hooks 
or  nails.  They  differed  from  each  other,  and  the 
minstrels  differed,  but  a  leaf  of  lettuce  and  a  bowl  of 
water  were  in  each  of  them.  Maybe  three  women 
knelt  at  various  altars  ;  I  do  not  know  how  they  were 
affected  by  the  music,  if  it  mingled  with  their 
customary  adorations,  for  they  did  not  seem  to  notice 
anything.  The  placid  peasant  put  the  chair  into  its 
proper  place  and  limped  away. 

He  told  me,  outside  in  the  church's  garden,  that  he 
hung  the  birds  up  always  on  the  second  Friday  and 
he  left  them  singing  till  the  twilight. 

'  Has  the  saint,'  I  asked,  4  been  very  kind  to  you  ?  ' 

'  The  intercessions  of  him  have  assisted  all  of  us.' 

'  And  you,'  I  said,  '  have  you  been  doing  this  for 
many  years  ?  • 


404      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


'  I  am  not  married.'  He  picked  up  the  brown  sheath 
which  had  fallen  from  the  trunk  of  a  banana  tree  and 
threw  it  into  one  of  the  large,  broken  urns  which  stood 
upon  the  moss-grown  pavement,  underneath  the 
orange  trees  and  thorny  vines  and  the  untidier  banana 
trees  and  miscellaneous  shrubs.  '  When  I  am  not 
here,'  he  said,  '  my  sister  does  the  business  for  me. 
I  go  travelling,  with  earthenware,  in  many  parts  of  the 
Republic' 

His  name  ? — but  in  the  unkempt  garden  were  some 
graves  between  the  moss.  4  Senorita  M.  F.  L.,'  said 
one  of  them  ;  '  Senorita  C.  R.  F.,'  the  next  one. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


DIAZ  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  HELL1 

4  Pardon  me,'  said  Satan,  '  but  you  understand  that 

if  I  don't  observe  the  rules  ' 

Porfirio  bowed.  He  thought  that  it  was  safer  to  be 
silent. 

'  We  shall  run  through  this  examination,'  said  the 
Devil.  4  Just  a  form,  you  know.  It  is  so  difficult  to 
draw  the  line  and  even  those  who  are  thought  worthy 
of  a  place  on  the  committee  have  to  be  obedient  to 
the  rules.  We  have  our  Constitution,  like  the  rest  of 
them.' 

Porfirio  stood  more  erect.    4  Aha  !  '  said  he. 

Now  Satan,  being  of  a  perfect  beauty,  cannot  grow 
more  beautiful,  not  even  for  a  moment.  Otherwise 
you  would  have  been  inclined  to  say  that  some  fair 
thought  had  lent  his  countenance  a  greater  glory. 
4  Well ' — he  gave  a  little  laugh — 4 1  really  am  quite 
charmed  to  see  you.  Let  me  mention  that  I  don't 
receive  all  aspirants  myself.  No,  they  must  be 
distinguished.    But  to  business  ' 

He  had  heard  the  hoof-steps  of  Malured,  an  assistant 
devil. 

4 1  am  ready,'  quoth  Porfirio. 

1  Whether  to  review  the  life  of  General  Diaz  we  prefer  to  have 
the  scene  inside  a  law-court  or  beside  the  gate  of  hell  is  much  the 
same.  But  since  it  is  less  probable  that  he  will  be  arraigned  before 
the  first  of  these  I  choose  the  second,  and  although  it  may  be  inartistic, 
for  the  local  colour  has  not  been  observed. 

405 


406      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


4  Look  here,'  said  Satan  to  the  new  arrival,  who  was 
fixing  his  asbestos  spectacles,  4  look  here,  must  we 
begin  at  the  beginning  ?  ' 

4  Yes,  we  must,'  said  Malured. 

4  But  this  is  Don  Porfirio  Diaz  !  ' 

Malured  gave  one  of  his  stiff  bows.  4 1  have  the 
''Book  of  Actors."  5 

4  But  I  am  a  military  man  ! '  cried  Diaz.  4  You  are 
taking  me  for  someone  else.' 

4  No  !  no  !  '  said  Satan,  4  my  good  friend  Malured 
is  infallible.' 

4  But  I  am  not  an  actor  !  ' 

4  Sit  you  down,  I  beg,'  said  Satan,  4  and  reply  to 
what  he  asks.' 

Then  Diaz  came  out  with  an  Oaxacanian  oath. 
4  What  of  the  medals  on  my  breast  ?  '  (He  did  not 
see  that  they  had  melted  all  away.)  4  A  player  would 
not  ' 

4  Talking  of  Oaxaca,'  said  the  Devil,  4  is  it  true  that 
when  Benito  Juarez  was  its  Governor  and  had  the 
wish  to  give  you  some  promotion  in  the  army  ?  ' 

4  Oh,  I  know  what  you  are  going  to  say.' 

4  Be  more  respectful,  if  you  please,'  said  Satan. 

Don  Porfirio  threw  out  his  hand.  4  All  right,'  he 
said  ;  4  but  how  can  one  exist  without  some  money  ?  ' 

4  It  depends,'  said  Satan. 

4  In  that  army  no  one  got  his  wages,'  said  Porfirio. 

'  And  that  is  why  you  wished  to  have  a  civil  post  ?  ' 

4 1  thought  that  so  I  could  be  of  more  service  to 
the  fatherland.' 

4  Dear  fellow  !  '  Satan  put  his  hand,  his  delicate, 
almost  transparent  hand,  on  Don  Porfirio' s  shoulder. 
4  Come  now,  do  you  think  our  Books  are  subsidised  ?  ' 

Malured  coughed,  removed  his  spectacles  and 
wiped  them  carefully. 


DIAZ  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  HELL  407 

'In  Mexico,'  said  Satan,  'you  have  got  three  kinds 
of  truth.  Suppose  a  man  says  :  "  It  is  truth,"  then 
surely  he  is  lying.  If  he  says  :  "  It  is  the  truth  of 
truth,"  then  sometimes  he  is  lying.  If  he  says  :  "It 
is  the  truth  of  God,"  then  it  may  be  he  does  not  lie. 
As  for  the  truth  of  Satan,  I  assure  you,'  Satan  said, 
8  that  it  is  very  true.  No  person  who  invokes  it  in 
sincerity  can  tell  a  lie.' 

4  Well,  well,  the  truth  is  that  I  didn't  want  to  be  a 
soldier,'  said  Porfirio.   He  frowned. 

4  And  they  made  you  a  captain,  because  ?  ' 

'  Oh,  yes,  because  I  came  to  Oaxaca  with  a  con- 
tingent of  fifty  men.' 

4  Exactly ;  and  you  were  talking  of  your  medals. 
Do  you  mean  that  they  were  given  you  for  military 
exploits  ?  ' 

4  Some  of  them,'  said  Diaz;  4  when  a  man  is  chief 
executive  for  any  time  the  monarchs  have  to  decorate 
him  as  a  compliment.' 

4  You  wear  one  of  those  German  eagles  ?  ' 

4  The  Red  Eagle,  monseigneur.  It  was  a  compli- 
ment.' 

The  Devil  seemed  to  be  perplexed,  and  Malured 
approached  and  whispered  in  his  ear.  4  Of  course  it 
has  more  to  do  with  him  than  with  Porfirio,'  said 
Satan.  4  But  these  compliments  can't  surely  be 
sarcastic  ?  ' 

4  By  no  means,'  said  Malured,  4  they  are  given  on 
account  of  something.' 

4  That  is  it,  precisely.  When  the  two  daughters  of 
the  German  Consul  were  seduced  by  the  Governor  of 
Puebla,  this  man  did  nothing.  And  when  a  little 
German  girl  called  Noecker  was  seduced  by  a  bull- 
fighter, his  brother  and  a  third  companion,  this  man 
did  nothing.' 


408      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Malured  did  not  care  much  for  a  digression,  and 
with  the  object  of  stopping  this  one  he  rapped  out  an 
answer  :  4  As  you  say,  the  man  did  nothing.  If  he 
had  done  either  of  those  deeds  he  surely  would  not 
have  obtained  the  slightest  eagle.  Now,  with  your 
permission,  I  should  like  to  see  what  there  is  in  this 
Book.' 

4  Oh,  very  well,  the  "Book  of  Actors,"'  said  the 
Devil,  4  and  you  might  have  little  Red- Washer  at 
work.' 

Malured  placed  that  large  volume  on  the  ground, 
and  lying  prostrate  by  the  side  of  it  he  turned  the 
pages.  Satan  sat  down  comfortably  on  his  tail,  but 
Don  Porfirio  Diaz  stood  erect,  as  if  he  were  offended. 
He  did  not  appear  to  notice  the  arrival  of  Red- 
Washer,  with  a  sponge  and  bucket ;  no,  not  even  when 
this  little  energetic  devil  took  possession  of  his  hand 
to  rub  it. 

1  Here  we  have  him,'  Malured  observed.  His  nail, 
in  contact  with  the  page,  emitted  sparks  of  violet. 

4  Of  course,'  said  Satan  to  Porfirio,  4  you  will 
remember  that  this  is  the  truth,  and  it  will  not  be  well 
if  you  deny  it.' 

4  I  protest  against  this  kind  of  treatment,'  quoth 
the  erstwhile  ruler.    1 1  am  not  accustomed  ' 

4  Ah,'  said  Satan  meditatively,  4  you  will  discover 
that  the  truth  has  got  a  certain  charm  which  custom 
cannot  stale.' 

4  A  man  in  my  position  ' 

4  Let  me  see,'  quoth  Malured,  4  you  had  some  fame 
for  having  kept  the  peace.  'Twas  said  that  your 
assassinations  were  beneficent,  for  they  secured  those 
thirty  years  of  peace.  Now  what  have  you  to  say  to 
that  ?  ' 

The  Devil  put  one  leg  across  the  other,  and  his 


DIAZ  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  HELL  409 


beautiful,  all-seeing  eye  was  serious  with  sympathy. 
4  Do  not  think  you  are  unwelcome  here,'  he  said,  '  and 

if  it  bores  you  to  relate  your  sins   No,  do  not 

interrupt  me  ! ' 

6  They  were  needful ! ' 

'  As,  for  instance,  at  Miahuatlan,  when  your  com- 
padre,  who  was  on  the  other  side,  an  officer,  gave  up 
his  sword  to  you  and  you  transfixed  him  with  it. 
Pray,  remember,  Don  Porfirio,  the  Devil  is  a  gentle- 
man.' 

4  All  that  is  long  ago.  What  is  it  that  you  want  of 
me?' 

4  One  cannot  blame  you  wholly  for  the  adulation 
you  received.    Those  Mexicans  and  foreigners  ' 

4  Well,  Heaven  knows ' — Porfirio  pulled  a  grimace 
— 4  Heaven  knows  what  they  are  saying  of  me  now.' 

4  And  I  know  too,'  said  Satan.  4  But  it  was  to  be 
expected.' 

4 1  who  paid  a  yearly  visit  to  the  tomb  of  Juarez. 
I  who  wept  there,  calling  him  my  august  teacher  ! ' 

4  Page  200,  section  3,'  said  Malured  from  where  he 
lay  upon  his  stomach.  4 1  have  it  reported  that  he 
subsidised  a  book  ' 

4  The  fine  arts  have  to  be  supported,  surely,'  said 
Porfirio. 

4  This  volume  could  not  undermine  Benito's  fame.' 

4  The  plague  fetch  all  those  writers  ! ' 

4 1  have  also  got  an  English  writer,'  said  Malured, 
'  one  who  did  not  deprecate  Benito  Juarez,  but 
addressed  you  as  the  greatest  person  of  the  nineteenth 
century.'1 

4  You  think  I  urged  that  book  ?  And  how  could 
Mrs.  Tweedie  write  of  me  or  Mexico  ?  I  tell  you,  she 
could  not  speak  Spanish.' 

1  *  Of  course,'  she  admits,  '  there  were  other  great  men.' 


410      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


'  Yes,  my  friend,'  said  Satan,  '  but  we  are  not 
talking  of  her  book  on  Mexico,  whose  very  title — 
"Mexico  As  I  Saw  It" — is  disarming.  Oh,  for  five 
minutes  of  Madame  Calderon  de  la  Barca  !  What  we 
want  to  know  is,  did  you  subsidise  ?  ' 

'  Canastos !  recanastos !  why,  she  laughs  at  me  ! 
She  says  that  I  advanced  to  Icamole  and  defeated 
there  a  larger  force  under  General  Fuero.  Everybody 
knows  I  was  defeated  and  received  a  nickname  from 
the  tears  I  shed.   Forsooth  !  I  subsidised  the  book  !  ' 

'  Look  here,'  said  Satan,  4  Mrs.  Alec  Tweedie  tells 
us  that  she  was  acclaimed  in  Mexico  as  having  real 
literary  talent  and  a  vast  amount  of  solid  common 
sense.' 

But  Don  Porfirio  was  rude.  His  language,  for  a 
moment,  was  that  of  his  ancestors.  And  we  will  not 
repeat  it. 

'  I  shall  place  her  writings  on  that  Index  of  the 
Volumes  to  be  read  in  Hell,'  quoth  Satan. 

Then  Malured,  who  made  a  speciality  of  books, 
explained :  her  publishers  demand  so  many  illustra- 
tions ;  that,  for  instance,  in  her  book  on  Mexico  there 
was  a  picture  of  Chihuahua  horses  at  a  ranch,  and 
that  this  picture  also  served  to  illustrate  Porfirio' s 
childhood  in  the  other  book. 

4  Ah,  well,'  the  Devil  said,  '  if  one  were  writing  on 
the  youth  of  Nelson  it  would  be  agreeable  to  have  a 
picture  of  some  Shetland  ponies.  As  for  literature,  I 
am  not  so  profoundly  versed  in  prose  as  in  my  Milton, 
but  I  think  this  lady — —  ' 

'  Her  name,'  said  Malured,  4  is  either  Mrs.  Alec 
Tweedie  or  Mrs.  Alec-Tweedie.   She  uses  both  forms.' 

4  Well,  it  seems  to  me  her  writing  is  not  so  dis- 
tinguished ' 

Don  Porfirio  stepped  forward.    4  Those  triumphal 


DIAZ  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  HELL  411 


arches  we  erected  !  She  brought  out  a  letter  saying 
that  she  was  a  representative  of  "  The  Queen,"  and  how 
could  you  expect  us  to  know  that  it  was  the  sixpenny 
"  Queen  "  and  not  Queen  Victoria  ?  When  we  called  her 
a  distinguished  authoress  it  did  not  mean  we  guaran- 
teed that  in  her  writings  you  would  vainly  look  for 
something  undistinguished.   I  remember  ' 

4  Say  no  more  about  it,'  quoth  the  Devil.  4  Tell  me, 
don't  you  feel  him  rubbing  you  ?  '  He  pointed  at  his 
aide-de-camp,  Red- Washer,  who  was  in  a  perspira- 
tion. 4  Are  you  quite  aware,'  the  Devil  said,  4  that 
he  is  rubbing  blood  marks  from  your  hand  with  his 
sulphuric  acid  ?   You  are  brave,  I  know  ' 

4  I  have  only  got  away  two  layers  of  blood,  as  yet,' 
observed  Red- Washer. 

Satan  murmured  that  Porfirio  was  certainly  an 
acquisition.  4 1  was  going  to  tell  you,'  he  remarked. 
4  A  few  of  your  important  sins  are  all  you  need  confess, 
and  then  you  are  of  this  Society.' 

4  I  slew  ' 

4  But  what  we  want  from  your  own  lips,'  said 
Malured, 4  is  whether  it  is  not  ridiculous  to  call  you  the 
preserver  of  the  peace  ?  ' 

The  candidate  for  Hell  stared  at  the  bookish  devil, 
but  his  gaze  did  not  work  havoc,  as  of  yore.  He 
laughed  good-humouredly.  4 1  could  not  help  myself, 
you  know.  When  Don  Benito  was  the  President  ' 

4  And  all  the  country  wanted  peace,'  said 
Malured. 

4  I  really  had  to  break  it,  and  when  Don  Sebastian 
was  President  it  was  the  same,  and  when  Iglesias  was 
President  by  law — but  surely  it  was  better  that  they 
should  have  me  ?  ' 

4  The  country  wanted  peace,'  said  Malured. 

4 1  gave  it  them.    If  anybody  showed  a  sign  of 


412      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


damaging  the  peace — my  peace — I  drowned  him  in 
his  blood.' 

4  All  that  is  very  well,'  said  Satan.  4  It  reminds  me 
of  a  story.  When  the  blight  came  down  upon  the 
orange  trees,  it  put  a  stop  to  all  the  merry  singing 
of  the  juice.  That  is  what  you  have  done,  Porfirio ; 
you  gave  the  blight  of  peace.' 

'  I  never  heard  of  such  a  phrase,  and  I  have  had  to 
listen  to  a  lot  of  eloquence,'  said  Don  Porfirio. 

Then  Satan  told  him  that  there  are  some  things 
more  splendid  than  peace.  '  I  never  shall  persuade 
them  on  the  earth,'  he  said,  4  to  have  the  true 
democracy  which  is  established  here.'  If  he  had  not 
been  gazing  pensively  upon  the  ground  he  would  have 
noticed  that  the  fingers  of  the  candidate  were  moving 
slightly  ;  strange  to  say,  they  were  making  the  sign 
of  the  cross.  4  Porfirio,'  he  said,  4  you  gave  them 
peace,  and  by  the  ruin  of  two  generations.  Not  alone 
the  democratic  spirit  did  you  flout,  and  not  alone  the 
country's  culture  and  advancement,  but  you  stifled 
all  the  independence,  all  the  manliness  of  Mexico.' 

4  Now  this  is  too  much  !  '  exclaimed  Porfirio.  4  You 
are  the  Devil,  and  you  seem  to  talk  ' 

4 1  know  what  you  are  going  to  say,'  said  Satan, 
4  that  I  talk  as  if  I  were  the  teacher  of  a  Sunday 
school.  Perhaps  it  is  so,  and  at  all  events  I  yield  to 
your  expert  opinion.  Are  you  not  an  honorary 
member  of  the  World's  Sunday  School  Association  ? 
But  as  for  my  own  sentiments,  you  should  remember 
that  I  have  officially  to  act  in  certain  ways,  whereas 
my  head  contains  entirely  different  ideas.  It  is  most 
tragic' 

4  Anyhow,'  said  Don  Porfirio,  4  the  state  of  things 

in  Mexico  before  I  got  into  the  saddle  ' 

4  We  have  been  told  that  peace  hath  got  her 


DIAZ  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  HELL  413 


victories  no  less  than  war,'  said  Satan,  '  but  she  hath 
humiliations  more  disastrous  than  what  a  war  can 
ever  bring.' 

4  That  famous  peace  of  his,'  quoth  Malured,  4  is 
down  here  in  the  "Book  of  Actors."  ' 

4  And  your  acting,'  said  the  Devil,  4  was  quite  good 
enough  for  many  of  the  foreigners.  They  really 
thought  that  your  preserving  of  the  peace  was  excel- 
lent. And  some  of  them  were  English  Liberals,  who 
get  as  hot  as  in  my  hottest  chamber  when  they  talk 
about  the  Macedonians  or  the  Finns.  I  shall  inquire 
of  them,  when  they  arrive,  how  they  can  give  an 
explanation.  They  will  say,  of  course,  that  Mexicans 
are  neither  Finns  nor  Macedonians,  nor  Congolese  nor 
yet  Armenians.' 

4  Some  of  the  foreigners  will  be  quite  sorry  I  have 
gone,'  declared  Porfirio. 

4  Their  deeds  of  partnership,'  said  Malured,  4  are 
open  to  inspection  here  gratuitously.' 

4  Carajo  !  I  do  not  refer  to  those  few  houses.  I 
mean  those  with  whom  I  had  no  private  under- 
standing, all  those  hundreds,  thousands  who  invested 
in  the  country  and  whose  fortunes  were  dependent 
on  my  peace.' 

The  Devil  smiled  a  little  sadly.  4  Even  as  an  actor, 
you  are  brave,'  he  said.  4  But  what  you  have  as- 
serted now  ' 

4 1  really  can  rub  off  no  more  ! '  It  was  Red- 
Washer  whose  sulphuric  acid  had  produced  no 
adequate  result. 

4  Then  you  can  go.  Leave  him  to  us,  my  boy,'  said 
Satan,  and  while  this  assistant  picked  his  apparatus 
up  the  Master  gazed  at  Don  Porfirio  and  finally  : 

4  Oh,  well,  if  you  will  spare  me  no  confession,'  cried 
Porfirio,  4 1  must  acknowledge,  I  suppose,  that  peace 


414      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


was  wanted  by  them  all.  It  was  the  people's  over- 
whelming wish.' 

'  Proceed,'  said  Malured.  He  made  a  circle  with  his 
toes,  which  he  had  lifted  high  above  his  head. 

'  No  one  broke  the  peace  but  I.' 

6  And  it  was  difficult  for  you,'  said  Satan,  4  not  to 
add  that  it  was  quite  dishonourable.' 

4 1  preserved  the  peace  by  shedding  copious  blood 
and  afterwards  by  stifling  all  my  people's  indepen- 
dence, all  their  manliness.' 

4  Go  on,'  said  Malured. 

'  Well,  business  people  dread  a  change  ;  and  those 
who  got  concessions  from  me  hope  for  more  con- 
cessions. Those  who  want  to  interest  the  European 
and  American  investors  want  to  have  it  thought  that 
Mexico  is  perfectly  secure.  Perhaps  it  will  be  some 
day,  but  my  system  was  a  despotism  which  depended 
on  a  single  man.' 

'  So  much  for  your  grand  peace,'  said  Satan.  '  Let 
us  talk  no  more  of  that.' 

4  Will  you  admit  him  now  ?  '  asked  Malured.  1 1 
have  a  good  deal  more  about  him,  but  as  we  have 
shown  that  in  this  peace  capacity  he  was  a  most 
unmitigated  actor  (hypocrite,  I  should  say)  he  is 
eligible.' 

4  But  I  am  rather  interested  in  the  man,'  said  Satan, 
4  and  who  knows  when  I  shall  have  the  time  to  speak 
to  him  again  ?  '  He  took  a  yellow  notebook  from  his 
pocket.  4  There  is  no  one  coming  for  an  hour  or  two,' 
he  said, 4  that  is  to  say  none  who  demands  my  personal 
attention.  There  are  six  or  seven  parricides,  the 
founder  of  a  new  religion,  the  destroyer  of  a  harmless 
old  illusion,  a  batch  of  traitors  chiefly  from  the  Latin 
countries,  and  some  Anglo-Saxons  who  did  love 
themselves  not  wisely  but  too  well,  and  someone 


DIAZ  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  HELL  415 


who  has  also  had  to  do  with  Mexico,  a  Yankee  who 
was  luring  many  of  his  country-people  to  a  place 
called  Valles  in  the  State  of  San  Luis  Potosi.  That 
he  bought  the  land  for  38  cents  an  acre,  which  it  was 
hardly  worth,  and  sold  at  7  J  to  20  dollars  an  acre ; 
this,  I  fancy,  is  no  more  than  business.  But  he 
circulated  pictures  of  the  town  of  Valles,  showing 
street  cars  and  a  bank,  and  all  prosperity  ;  it  is  a 
miserable  Indian  hamlet.  Do  you  think  I  ought  to 
see  the  man  myself  ?  ' 

'  Why  not  see  this  Porfirio  about  the  matter  ? 
Not  so  long  ago  he  had  a  force  of  sixty  secret-service 
agents  watching  his  brave  enemy  Madero  at  a  town  in 
Texas.  Could  he  not  spare  one  of  them  to  keep  a 
watch  upon  these  pictures  that  were  circulated  in 
Arkansas  and  that  ruined  many  simple-minded 
farmers  ?  This  is  only  one  example  of  American — 
what  shall  I  call  it  ?  ' 

Satan  started  walking  up  and  down.  Then  sud- 
denly he  stopped  in  front  of  Don  Porfirio.  '  That 
question  of  industrial  advancement,  what  of  that  ?  ' 
he  said. 

'  It  has  gone  pretty  well,'  said  Don  Porfirio. 

4  And  ?  '  Satan  raised  an  eyebrow. 

s  It  would  have  gone  better  still  without  me.' 

'  That  is  right.  I  am  so  glad,'  said  Satan,  6  that  you 
honour  my  devotion  to  the  truth.  Have  you  got  that 
about  the  industries  ?  '  he  said  to  Malured. 

'  Oh,  let  us  look  into  his  murders,  they  are  pictur- 
esque and  sordid,  they  are  numerous,'  was  the  reply. 

6  Do  what  I  tell  you,'  said  his  chief. 

The  prostrate  devil  therefore  ran  his  pointed  finger 
down  the  page  until  a  spark  flashed  out.  '  Here  is 
the  section  of  the  industries,'  he  said.  6 "  It  is  not 
worth   our  while  investigating   how  some  other 


416      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


countries  of  America  have  in  these  thirty  years 
advanced  more  rapidly  than  Mexico — for  instance, 
Argentine  and  Chili  and  Brazil.  It  is  a  matter  of  the 
men  and  the  resources.  Mexico  has  fertile  parts  and 
others  that  will  not  support  a  crow.  But  if  the  total 
of  resources  is  not  anything  more  marvellous  than 
elsewhere,  they  are,  certain  of  them,  undeveloped 
owing  to  the  men.  Those  Mexicans  fly  always  to 
extremes — I  talk  of  Mexicans  who  are  in  a  position 
to  develop  property — they  sit  and  wait  for  other 
folks'  experience  or  they  are  gifted  with  such  shrewd- 
ness that  the  pies  are  few  which  can  escape  them. 
So  you  can't  depend,  as  yet,  upon  the  Mexicans  ;  they 
have  too  much  or  insufficient  enterprise  ;  and  those 
responsible  for  Mexico's  industrial  advancement, 
such  as  it  is,  are  mostly  foreigners."  ' 

4 1  was  of  assistance  to  them,'  ventured  Don  Porfirio. 

'You  are  indeed  an  actor,'  said  the  Devil;  'could 
you  help  yourself  ?  ' 

4 1  did.' 

The  Devil,  being  wise,  is  fond  of  laughter.  And  he 
seized  this  opportunity.  1  Yes,  yes,  but  not  yourself 
alone,'  he  cried ;  '  your  little  son,  for  instance,  was 
director  of  a  good  few  companies.' 

Porfirio  was  understood  to  say  that  if  it  pleased  so 

many  people  to  provide  for  Porfirito  !    4  He  is 

amiable,  my  son,  he  is  an  engineer,  an  architect,  an 
officer,  but  I  am  much  afraid  when  I  am  gone  ! ' 

4  A  Richard  Cromwell  manque,  and  you  will  excuse 
me,'  said  the  Devil,  4  but  I  really  hope  for  your  sake 
that  they  will  not  ask  him  to  construct  your  monu- 
ments. Most  probably  it  would  be  sharper  than  a 
serpent's  tooth  for  you.  But  let  us  back  to  business. 
Do  you  think  the  foreigners  were  more  attracted  by 
your  help  or  by  the  favourable  prospects  ?  ' 


DIAZ  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  HELL  417 


'  They  must  always  be  encouraged,'  said  Porfirio. 

4  Be  careful.  Was  it  on  account  of  aid  you  got 
before  you  were  the  President  that  you  allowed 
Americans  to  build  the  railway  lines  ?  Was  it 
Americans  who,  when  you  were  not  President, 
encouraged  you  ?  ' 

He  seemed  to  be  reflecting,  and  Malured  informed 
his  chief  that  he  was  in  possession  of  the  facts. 

'  I  do  not  live  outside  the  world  entirely,'  said  the 
Devil,  '  and  it  seems  to  me  that  if  new  countries  have 
their  openings  the  foreigners  will  enter  them  and  take 
their  chance  of  instability.  The  profits  which  they 
hope  for  will  be  solid  in  proportion.' 

'  Then,'  quoth  Porfirio,  '  the  peace  and  progress  of 
the  country  are  not  due  to  me.'  He  rubbed  his 
chin. 

4  We  can't  admit  you,  though,'  said  Satan,  '  nega- 
tively, as  it  were,  just  on  the  ground  that  you  are  not 
possessed  of  your  two  vaunted  virtues.  If  we  let  you 
in  like  that  we  should  be  following  the  poor  example 
of  your  own  official  at  a  place  called  Inde  in  Durango. 
When  a  man  was  murdered  there,  not  long  since, 
he  came  with  a  mounted  guard  to  Inde,  and  as  the 
murderer  had  vanished  he  produced  a  list  of  the 
inhabitants  whose  characters  were  bad  and  then  in 
alphabetic  order  he  shot  the  first  five,  and  an  English- 
man called  Baring,  a  spectator,  remonstrated  vigor- 
ously. It  is  wrong,  as  I  remarked  just  now,  to  do  a 
favour  to  a  man  because  he  is  deprived  of  certain 
virtues,  and  I  fancy  Mr.  Baring  must  have  thought  it 
was  absurd  to  give  indulgence  merely  for  the  reason 
that  the  client's  name  began  with  Z  in  place  of  the 
good  letter  B.' 

'  Shall  we  let  him  in,'  asked  Malured, 6  because  of  his 
assassinations  ?  ' 


2  E 


418      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


4  As  I  worked  against  the  peace  and  progress  of  the 
country  I  do  not  see  how  my  efforts  can  be  classed  as 
purely  negative,'  said  Diaz.   '  Let  me  in,  I  beg  you.' 

Satan  thought  a  moment  ere  he  made  reply.  4  You 
interfered  with  justice  in  your  time,'  he  said. 

'  Yes.   Let  me  in.' 

'  Suppose  I  have  to  use  the  same  expression  that 
was  on  your  judges'  lips  :  "  There  is  a  higher  order  " 
— "  Hay  consigna  "  ?  ' 

4  You  are  making  fun  of  me.  I  like  a  seemly  joke — 
have  you  not  heard  of  that  one  which  I  said  to  old 
Sebastian  Camacho  ?  He  was  marrying  his  third 
wife1  and  I  said  that  it  was  wonderful  to  do  a  thing 
like  that  at  eighty,  and  he  told  me  he  was  eighty-five, 
and  then  I  asked  him  what  his  object  was.' 

4  There  was  once  a  green  wave  which  I  coveted,' 
said  Satan,  6  in  the  South  Pacific,  and  I  would  not 
let  her  fall  into  annihilation.  She  was  to  be  my  green 
wave  for  ever,  and  I  broke  into  the  Law  to  keep  her 
mine.  And  now  that  for  all  ages  I  have  separated 
her  from  her  companions  I  shall  listen  to  that  crying 
when  all  sound  is  still.' 

'  Do  let  me  enter  now,'  said  Don  Porfirio.  He 
thought  that  he  was  being  swindled,  for  they  had 
extracted  from  him  those  admissions  and  did  not 
appear  yet  to  be  satisfied.  He  would  complain — but 
where  could  he  direct  himself  ?     Some  kind  of 

1  Those  who  care  for  a  coincidence  may  like  to  know  that  when 
she  married  him  this  lady's  name  was  Martinez  del  Campo,  and  that 
in  a  piece  which  one  Camacho  y  Martinez  wrote  (Madrid,  1749) — 
a  tragi-comedy  entitled  'Koulikan,  Rayo  del  Assia  —  there  is  this 

passage  : — 

El  alma  es  libre,  y  el  cuerpo 
Es  quien  contrata  servidumbre. 

(The  soul  is  free,  whereas  the  body 
Doth  submit  to  servitude. ) 


DIAZ  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  HELL  419 


questioning  he  had  awaited,  but  this  really  was 
abominable.  From  the  doorway  he  perceived  a  lane 
of  fallen  stars  which  lighted  you  to  the  recess  of  Hell. 
They  seemed  to  beckon  you  and,  if  it  had  been  in  his 
power,  he  would  have  put  them  out. 

4  Maybe  that  it  is  better,'  quoth  the  Devil,  4  if  I  go 
through  some  of  your  assassinations.  Will  you  fetch 
the  "  Book  of  Gore  "  ?  '  he  said  to  Malured,  who  rose 
with  great  alacrity.    The  Devil  sighed. 

4  I  fear  that  I  am  troubling  you,'  said  Don 
Porfirio. 

'  It  is  like  this,'  said  Satan.  4 1  had  hoped  to  spare 
myself  the  pain  of  talking  blood.  But  evidently  there 
is  nothing  else  that  I  can  do.  Man  Diaz,  you  have 
made  me  sad.' 

The  candidate  was  tart  in  his  reply.  4  It  is  a  little 
strange,'  he  said,  and  then  he  recollected  that  it 
would  not  be  advisable  to  be  on  bad  terms  with  his 
future  host.  4  If  you  will  look  again  into  the  44  Book 
of  Actors,"  '  he  suggested,  4  you  will  find  sufficient 
things  before  your  friend  returns.  I  never  was  a 
great  commander,  but  I  think  it  may  be  said  I  was 
a  brave  and  active  person.' 

Satan  nodded. 

4 1  was  lucky  and  I  can't  object  to  what  they  called 
me  :  El  gran  chiripero.1  Often  I  was  beaten,  but 
my  two  great  victories  have  put  all  else  into  the 
shade.' 

The  Devil  shook  his  head.  4  And  your  assassina- 
tions ?  ' 

4  Oh,  General  Corona,  who  had  got  too  many  friends 
— I  had  him  murdered  as  he  came  out  of  the  theatre, 
and  the  policeman  after  doing  it  was  met  just  round 
the  corner  by  some  soldiers  and  was  instantly 
1  The  great  fluker. 


420      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


dispatched.1  Then  General  Ignacio  Martinez,  who 
had  saved  me  in  a  battle  with  his  1500  men  and  after 
he  fell  out  with  me  was  in  Laredo,  Texas,  where  he 
practised  as  a  doctor  and  thought  well  to  write  against 
me — I  gave  orders  for  him  to  be  murdered.  Also  General 
de  la  Cadena,  whom  I  ordered  to  be  killed  at  Zacatecas.' 

6  Yes,  on  that  day  the  telegraph  was  cut,'  said  Satan, 
'  and  you  summoned  to  the  Palace,  when  the  train 
arrived,  a  German  passenger,  and  asked  him  if  he  had  seen 
anything  occur  at  Zacatecas .  You  were  terribly  excited . ' 

6  May  I  enter  now  ?  '  said  Diaz.  '  If  you  give  as 
much  time  to  the  others  ! ' 

Malured  appeared.  He  had  with  him  the  c  Book 
of  Gore.'  And  as  you  looked  at  Satan  you  imagined 
that  the  weight  of  that  huge  Book  was  being  borne 
by  him  and  not  by  Malured.  '  Ah,  when  I  think  of 
others  ! '  he  made  a  gesture  of  despair. 

'  I  have  the  two  great  victories  of  Diaz  !  '  cried  the 
new  arrival. 

'  Oh,  I  am  so  weary  of  it  all,'  said  Satan,  and  he 
strode  towards  a  rock  whereon  he  sat  him  down. 
He  seemed  the  very  god  of  grief. 

Then  Diaz,  with  his  eyes  a-glitter,  put  his  hand  upon 
the  arm  of  Malured,  and  he  besought  him  whether  by 
the  victories  he  meant  those  of  the  5th  May,  at  Puebla, 
and  that  other  one  of  2nd  April. 

1  These  men  must  have  been  very  carefully  selected,  since  it  is  the 
custom  for  a  Mexican  policeman  to  require  more  shots  than  one 
before  he  downs  a  quarry.  As  I  passed  on  one  occasion  through  the 
port  of  Veracruz  a  Spaniard  was  arrested,  and  was  taken  by  his 
thirsty  captor  to  a  public-house.  He  there  became  obstreperous, 
maybe  through  having  no  refreshment  offered  him,  and  the  policeman 
had  to  whistle  for  assistance.  When  a  colleague  hastily  arrived  upon 
the  scene  and  fired  a  shot  he  slew  policemen  No.  1.  At  Catmis  when 
the  Cirerols  attempted  to  win  back  their  hacienda  from  the  Yaquis 
and  the  Mayas,  one  of  them  succeeded,  it  is  said,  in  firing  150  shots, 
and  two  into  the  bodies  of  the  enemy.  We  make  allowance  for  the 
wooded  nature  of  the  district,  but  it  seems  to  argue  that  a  man  has 
little  skill  who  lets  so  many  of  his  bullets  knock  against  the  trees. 


A  New  El  Dorado, 

which  is  near  the  Guatemalan  frontier. 


DIAZ  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  HELL  421 


But  Malured  was  in  a  mocking  mood.  '  The  5th 
May,  which  General  Zaragoza  gained,  not  you — and 
seeing  that  the  scornful  French  charged  up  a  hill 
which  had  no  cover  and  the  Mexicans  were  on  the  top 
of  it  inside  a  fortress,  I  do  not  think  it  appropriate 
to  celebrate  this  anniversary,  O  Diaz  !  and  to  have  a 
street  called  "  Cinco  de  Mayo  "  in  every  town.  What 
you  may  pride  yourself  upon  is  that  the  native  troops, 
more  skilled  in  throwing  stones  than  firing  guns,  were 
not  afraid  of  standing  up  against  the  veterans  of 
Solferino.  .  .  .  Yes,  the  victory  was  won  by  Mexicans 
and  won  against  themselves,  and  that  is  not  a  little 
thing  for  anyone.' 

Porfirio  was  very  pale.  4  Which  of  my  victories 
have  you  got  there  ?  '  he  whispered  hoarsely. 

4  Veracruz  and  Orizaba.' 

4  Hombre  !  let  me  off.  Oh,  I  have  suffered  here. 
You  have  been  hard  on  me.  It  is  unjust  that  I 
should  be  selected  for  this  torment.  Satan  there 
acknowledged  that  I  was  a  brave  and  active  man. 
I  had  good  qualities,  and  you  regard  me  as  a  devil,  as 
a          Oh,  be  just  !  dear  Malured.' 

4  One  must  have  faith  in  justice,  as  you  said  to 
Colonel  Cota  when  his  son,  a  brave  man  and  an 
officer,  was  lying  under  sentence.  He  had  killed 
another  officer  who  took  his  wife.  One  must  have 
faith,  you  said,  in  justice,  and  a  few  hours  later  you 
had  Claudimiro  Cota  shot.' 

4  Now,  listen.'  Diaz  was  much  whiter  than  his  hair. 
He  glanced  at  Satan,  who  was  still  in  the  same  attitude 
of  sorrow.  4  Do  not  read  of  Veracruz  and  Orizaba — 
I  will  give  you  ' 

4  But  you  cannot  bribe  me.    Sir,  '  he  said, 

addressing  Satan. 

Don  Porfirio  was  desperate.    4  A  million  pesos  ! 


422      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


Take  a  million  pesos  or  the  care  of  any  custom-house.' 
He  scarcely  knew  what  he  was  saying.  '  I  will  give 
you  all  the  wealth  of  every  church  in  Mexico  !  Be 
good  to  me.  And  I  will  give  you  fifty  villages  of 
independent  Indians.  I  will  make  you  colonel  in 
my  army.' 

4  Thanks,'  said  the  assistant  devil.  Then,  quite 
placidly,  he  started  reading  on  the  page  marked 
Orizaba.  As  he  read  he  saw  that  Don  Porfirio  and 
Satan,  both  of  them,  were  sitting  on  the  rocks,  and 
both  of  them  had  the  appearance  of  the  men  whose 
fate  it  is  to  have  been  born  for  better  things.  And 
Malured  was  reading  : — 

ORIZABA 

'  How  many  people  did  you  kill  ? '  demanded  General 
Martinez. 

4  None,'  replied  Herrera,  the  philanthropist  who 
had  been  ordered  several  days  before  to  give  up  his 
position  as  the  jefe  politico  of  Orizaba.  It  had  seemed 
to  him  a  wrong  that  the  proprietors  of  Rio  Blanco 
should  oblige  the  men  to  buy  provisions  in  the  shop 
established  at  the  mill,  and  pay  for  them  a  price  above 
that  which  prevailed  at  Orizaba.  When  the  men  came  out 
on  strike  Herrera's  sympathy  was  practical :  he  bought 
large  quantities  of  food  and  gave  them  to  the  people. 

6  Oh,  you  had  police  !  You  should  have  made  them 
shoot.  You  should  have  killed,  as  an  example  for  the 
rest.  Where  is  the  head  of  the  police  ?  I  want  him,' 
cried  Martinez. 

4  Very  well.  But  shooting  was  impossible,  if  only  for 
the  reason  that  against  some  hundreds  of  the  strikers  I 
had  five  police.' 

'  Where  is  the  chief  of  them  ?  I  want  him.  Call 
him  instantly." 

6  He  comes.  And  afterwards  it  was  not  needful.  I 
stood  up  before  the  strikers,  reasoned  with  them,  and 
they  promised  to  refrain  from  violence."' 


DIAZ  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  HELL  423 


4 1  want  the  chief  of  the  police.  Ah,  that  is  he ! 
Now,  why  did  you  not  fire  on  them  ?  Come,  answer 
me  ! '    He  stamped  his  foot. 

6  To  shoot  the  strikers  ? 1  said  the  chief.  6  With  all 
respect,  my  General,  I  would  have  sooner  fired  on  them 
with  loaves  of  bread.' 

Martinez  gasped.    6  So  you  are  insolent  ?  You  

But  it  shall  not  happen  any  more."' 

The  man  saluted. 

'  You  and  your  companions  will  be  shot  immediately. 
And  as  for  you,'  he  said,  addressing  Don  Carlos 
Herrera,  'you  shall  be  a  deputy,  so  that  we  have  you 
up  in  Mexico  and  under  observation.  But  if  you  should 
ever  speak  a  word  of  these  events  or  of  what  I  am  going 
to  do  to-night  and  for  some  other  nights,  then  you  will 
travel,'1  and  his  forefinger  was  pointing  upward,  fcyou 
will  travel — see  that  you  do  not  forget  my  words — to 
somewhere  that  is  further  than  Mexico.' 

Satan  lifted  up  his  head.  6  How  many  people  fell  in 
that  fine  victory  ?  '  he  asked. 

'  Two  hundred  and  forty-three,'  answered  Malured. 
4  Their  feet  were  counted  as  they  drove  away  upon 
the  freight-cars.  He  did  not  send  such  an  envoy 
down  to  Veracruz.  He  sent  a  telegram :  "  Mdtalos  en 
caliente"  1  Some  have  dared  to  say  that  no  such 
telegram  was  sent.  I  would  refer  them  to  Eduardo 
Pankhurst,  Minister  of  the  Interior,  and  particularly 
to  Limon,  who  then  was  secretary  of  the  President 
and  was  promoted  to  be  consul  in  Paris.  I  will  read.' 
.  .  .  This  was  the  passage  : — 

VERACRUZ 

6  A  ruler  who  believes  sincerely  that  he  should  remain 
in  office  for  the  people's  sake  is  justified  in  taking  steps 
that  will  prevent  the  loss  of  him.    Conspirators  may 

1  'Kill  them  red-handed.'  The  original  telegram  is  still  in  the 
possession  of  the  Governor's  widow,  who  now  lives  at  Orizaba. 


424      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


be  imprisoned.  And  it  may  be  necessary  to  destroy 
them,  but  in  either  case  the  guilt  must  be  determined 
at  a  trial.  If  there  is  no  trial  you  are  running  risks, 
for  some  of  those  whom  you  imprison  or  destroy  may  be 
quite  innocent.  Suppose  that  you  have  killed  them  and 
you  have  no  proof  that  they  are  guilty,  then  you  run 
the  risk  of  being  called  a  coward  and  a  murderer."* 

'  Look  here,'  said  Diaz,  '  we  have  all  agreed  that  I 
was  brave.' 

'In  the  middle  of  the  night  these  men  were  taken 
from  their  beds,  were  dragged  into  the  Governor's  pre- 
sence and  were  murdered.  Yes,  there  was  a  judge, 
Rafael  Zayas  Enriquez,  who  arrived  when  nine  of  them 
were  slain,  and  all  that  he  could  do  was  to  protect  the 
others.  Also  they  had  mourners,  for  the  cart  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  vagrant  dogs  who  licked  the  blood  up  as 
it  fell,  and  mourned  that  it  was  not  more  copious.  The 
Governor  of  Veracruz,  an  instrument  of  Diaz,  who  pre- 
sided at  this  orgy,  ended  in  a  madhouse.  Don  Porfirio 
was  made  of  sterner  stuff.' 

'  I  can't  help  interrupting  you,'  said  Diaz.  1 1 
admit  that  some  of  them  were  innocent  and  I  was 
very  grieved.  What  restitution  I  could  make  I 
made  ;  for  instance,  Dr.  Albert's  son  obtained  a 
governmental  post.' 

'  More  shame  to  him,'  cried  Malured,  '  for  taking 
it.'1 

'  And  some  of  them  had  really  plotted.  How  can 
one  permit  such  dangerous  opponents  of  the  public 
weal  to  be  at  large  ?  ' 

'  Not  only  Mucio  Martinez  did  you  leave  for  twenty 

1  It  is  also  most  regrettable  that  the  widow  of  Emilio  Ordonez  (the 
journalist  whom  Don  Porfirio's  friend,  the  Governor  of  Hidalgo, 
burned  alive)  accepted  from  the  Government  of  Don  Porfirio  a 
situation  in  the  normal  school  for  lady  teachers,  as  '  prefecta  ' — one 
who  is  entrusted  with  the  maintenance  of  order  and  decorum. 


DIAZ  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  HELL  425 


years  in  Puebla,  but  the  Craviotos  you  permitted  to 
misgovern — nay,  to  devastate  Hidalgo — for  the  reason 
that  they  had  been  at  your  side  in  battle,  if  that  affair 
of  2nd  April  can  be  called  a  battle.  Mucio  Martinez 
and  the  Craviotos  you  let  loose  upon  the  people,  and 
Canedo  of  the  State  of  Sinaloa  was  another  of  this 
kidney.  Diaz,  if  you  be  not  judged  by  any  other  acts 
of  evil,  if  your  services  to  Mexico  be  all  remembered 
and  whatever  else  there  be  against  you  be  forgotten, 
you  shall  be  condemned.' 

4 1  shall  not  interrupt  again,'  said  Diaz. 

1  I  continue  '  : — 


4  Don  Porfirio  was  made  of  sterner  stuff.  If  he  him- 
self had  been  at  Veracruz  inside  the  barracks  he  would 
probably  have  breakfasted  next  morning  with  an  admir- 
able appetite.  His  faithful  soldiers  in  the  barracks  had 
been  given  brandy,  and  the  scene  was  this :  A  high- 
walled  courtyard,  wherein  at  the  left  and  at  the  bottom 
piles  of  dung  were  decomposing.  In  the  centre  lay 
three  corpses,  of  Cueto,  Ituarte,  and  Gutierrez.  And 
the  darkness  of  the  night  was  broken  only  by  four 
lanterns :  one  of  them  was  in  the  Governor's  hand,  his 
other  held  a  smoking  pistol  which  he  had  discharged 
into  Ituarte's  ear.  The  lantern's  light  was  dancing  on 
the  pools  of  blood,  while  those  who  were  the  authors 
of  the  hecatomb  stood  in  the  dark.  Then,  Dr.  Albert, 
like  the  others,  in  his  night  apparel  and  with  soldiers 
round  him,  stepped  into  the  courtyard.  Savage  in 
delirium,  the  governor  rolled  forward,  struck  him 
brutally  upon  the  shoulder.  "  Ah,  my  little  doctor,  is 
that  you  ?  "  And  turning  to  the  soldiers  he  exclaimed, 
"  Now,  on  this  one,  Christians.  Load ! "  The  miserable 
youth  had  grasped  the  Governor  by  the  knees,  implor- 
ing pity ;  panic-stricken  he  flung  out  a  stream  of  dis- 
connected phrases,  mad  entreaties.  After  struggling 
with  his  victim  for  a  time,  the  Governor  freed  himself 
from  those  convulsive  arms,  ran  towards  the  soldiers, 


426      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


and  when  Albert  raised  himself  he  was  surrounded  by 
the  rifles  ;  at  his  feet  were  those  three  corpses.  Shout- 
ing words  at  random  ' 

Suddenly  he  stopped  his  reading.  Don  Porfirio 
looked  up. 

'  Where  has  he  gone  ?  '  asked  Malured.  4  You  see 
my  lord  has  disappeared.  It  is  most  strange.  .  .  . 
Did  you  observe  how  your  examination  worried  him, 
poor  Devil  ?  I  have  never  seen  him  take  a  case  as  he 
took  yours.  No,  never.  .  .  .  He  is  naturally  sensitive. 
His  temperament  is  quite  at  variance  with  his  official 
character.  But  while  we  have  had  you  before  us  I 
was  noticing  that  he  could  hardly  bear  the  strain. 
And  he  has  left  us.  I  must  follow.'  Malured  arose, 
the  volume  underneath  his  arm.   He  walked  away. 

'  Hold  on  ! '  cried  Diaz.    '  What  shall  I  do  now  ?  ' 

Malured  stopped  for  a  moment.  '  I  am  sorry,'  so 
he  said,  '  I  can't  advise  you.' 


mm 

L  .  - 

A  blind  man  chanting  his  prayers 

in  the  fierce  heat  of  Tehuantepec.  He  is  paid  by  the  passers  by. 


The  domesticated  pirate. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


AN  ANGLO-MEXICAN  PIRATE 

It  is  true.  The  man  is  living  in  Tehuantepec,  inside 
the  long,  low,  azure  house — he  and  a  portion  of  his 
multitudinous  family.  But  how  shall  this  Canadian 
sea-dog,  this  uncommon  sort  of  pirate,  be  made 
credible  to  British  readers  in  the  British  Islands  ? 
How  would  those  around  me,  for  example,  on  this 
weather-beaten  island  of  South  Harris  in  the  Outer 
Hebrides,  who  during  the  dark  season  of  the  year 
devote  themselves  so  much  to  legends  and  to  books, 
how  would  they  knit  their  brows  at  being  told  about 
a  pirate  !  If  our  specimen  were  not  extant,  if  he  did 
not  inhabit  the  new  Mexico  but  old  mythology,  then 
I  suppose  that  these  descendants  of  the  Norsemen 
would  believe  in  him.  And  as  on  this  October  after- 
noon we  walk  along  towards  the  Sound  of  Harris, 
with  the  rock-strewn  meadows  or  a  darkening  glen 
beloved  by  the  deer  upon  our  left  and  with  the 
crumpled  sea  upon  our  right,  ah  well  !  we  are  in- 
vaded by  the  old  enchantment  of  the  Scandinavians. 
Those  waters  felt  the  keel  of  sea-kings  who  would 
never  sleep  below  a  sooty  rafter,  who  would  never 
drink  beside  the  hearth.  And  when  they  landed  on 
this  narrow  island  it  was  but  as  if  they  leaped  from  one 
ship  to  another.  Where  is  now  the  lonely  burial- 
ground  of  Uig  ?  In  the  rising  meadow  they  would  shake 
the  white  foam  off  their  bodies,  having  run  up  thither 

427 


428      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


from  the  surf  and  with  their  swords  held  high  above 
their  heads.  And  it  may  be  that  where  the  little 
kirk  is  standing,  by  the  shelf  of  creamy  sand,  there 
was  a  fisher  settlement,  a  place  in  which  the  joyous 
pirates  kissed  the  girls  and  sailed  away — wherein 
they  differed  from  our  friend  in  Mexico,  whose 
domesticity  has  almost  risen  to  a  vice  ;  and  as  their 
children  grew  to  manhood  they  were  drawn  towards 
the  unseen  fathers,  drawn  to  battle  like  their  fathers, 
with  the  distant  wave,  and  on  the  other  hand  they 
felt  a  chain  which  bound  them  to  the  silken  grasses 
of  the  motherland.  Aye,  through  the  generations 
which  succeeded  to  the  Norsemen's  landing  there  has 
been  a  grievous  conflict  in  the  bosom  of  this  people, 
hearing  now  the  plaintive  land-voice,  now  the  surging 
water- voice  :  it  is  as  on  this  afternoon  when  land  and 
sea  are  intermingled  with  a  net  of  driving  mist.  The 
foam  clouds  and  the  mist  are  swept  across  to  land- 
ward, charging  up  the  grey  rocks  of  the  shore,  across 
the  ragged  road  and  up  the  meadows.  Then  the  sea 
cloud  falls  behind  his  comrade,  whom  the  wind  blows 
up,  blows  up  the  emerald  hill  as  if  it  were  a  curtain. 
And  it  is  so  closely  drawn  that  one  would  think  we 
mortals  may  not  look  upon  the  other  side  of  it — and 
then  a  ray  of  sunlight  shows  that  there  is  nothing — 
and  the  mist,  once  more  impenetrable,  thrown 
athwart  this  island,  makes  one  feel  that  it  is  keeping 
from  us  a  profounder  mystery.  And  for  a  time  the 
land  on  every  side  was  blotted  out ;  in  place  of  it 
arose  a  magic  house,  a  temple  built  by  wind  and 
water  ;  as  the  furtive  sunlight  made  an  entrance  by 
the  roof  it  soon  suspended  on  the  pearl-grey  walls  a 
tapestry  of  unimaginable  brilliance,  just  as  if  the 
turquoises  and  amethysts  were  strung  upon  a  thread 
of  laughter.    Presently  one  saw,  far  off  upon  the 


AN  ANGLO-MEXICAN  PIRATE  429 


right,  a  darker,  unilluminated  wall,  the  promontory 
of  Rudha  Mas  a'  Chnuic  which  extends  into  the 
shadowy  sea. 

And  so  we  come  to  Obbe  with  its  scattered  dwellings 
and  its  elementary  small  harbour  on  the  Sound  of 
Harris.  Here  they  surely  tell  each  other  some  such 
legends  as  prevail  upon  the  outskirts  of  the  land  : 
here  when  the  gloomy  tide  in  rolling  out  between 
two  islands  bears  upon  its  surface  unaccountably  a 
streak  of  white,  not  passing  swifter  than  the  shadow 
of  a  cormorant,  they  will  relate  that  in  the  vessel 
which  has  just  gone  by  there  went  the  souls  of  foreign 
merchants  and  of  sailors  who  were  drowned  in  this 
lone  region  ;  here  when  sleet  is  driven  up  from  the 
Atlantic  and  across  the  archipelago  of  desolation, 
it  is  said  by  some  to  be  the  pirates  clad  in  surplices, 
for  having  mocked  at  holy  Church  ;  here  when  the 
moaning  and  the  lamentations  pierce  the  night  it  is 
the  shipwrecked  mariners  who  float  up  from  the  seas 
and  ask  for  burial  in  the  darkness  where  the  dear 
delights  of  their  old  life  will  not  disturb  them.  Surely 
now  the  people  who  give  ear  to  these  and  other 
legends,  surely  they  will  not  reject  my  story  of  the 
venerable  pirate  ?  Those  two  Scandinavian-looking 
fishermen  who  loiter  on  the  quay — but  over  there, 
that  large  white  building  is  the  school,  and  near  to 
such  a  place  one  cannot  talk  of  pirates,  no,  not  even 
of  retired  ones. 

But  whatever  be  the  deadening  effect  of  schools,  it 
is  absurd  to  throw  this  charge  at  every  modern 
institution.  The  demure  young  lady  of  the  wind- 
blown locks,  for  instance,  who  assists  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  little  wooden  post-office  of  Obbe 
is  a  vestal  at  the  shrine  of  strange  romance.  There 
you  may  learn  how  difficult  it  was  to  find  a  Pabbay 


430      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


postman — Pabbay  is  that  island  which  the  ocean 
has  enticed  away  from  all  the  others — and  how  the 
courageous  postman  undertakes  this  voyage  once  a 
month,  a  futile  journey  very  often  till  the  shepherdess 
of  that  old  couple  on  the  island  took  unto  herself  a 
lover  ;  you  may  learn  how  frequently  the  mail-boat 
does  not  stop  at  Rodel,  which  is  certain  miles  away 
upon  the  outermost  extremity  of  Harris,  and  the 
letters  will  be  carried  past  you  to  the  south,  and  on 
the  morrow  when  the  ship  returns  they  will  be  carried 
past  you  to  the  north,  and  in  the  meantime,  in  the 
post-office  of  Obbe,  Mrs.  Galbraith,  the  demure  young 
lady's  mistress,  is  prepared  to  tell  you  savage  stories 
of  the  deep.  Her  memory  goes  back  for  sixty  years, 
when  she  was  brought  from  Ireland  to  instruct  the 
boys,  4  and  if  you  wish  to  go  back  further  ' —  through 
her  spectacles  she  blinked  at  me — 6  to  go  back  further, 
is  it  ?  Then  you  need  to  go  to  Rodel  and  address  the 
green  old  warrior.  He's  the  oldest  one  of  any  of  us. 
And  you'll  find  him  there  upon  his  back,'  she  said. 

I  thought  her  tone  of  voice  betokened  an  imperfect 
sympathy  with  the  afflicted  gentleman.  Her  eyes 
were  positively  dancing.  But  I  was  myself  delighted 
when  she  told  me  that  he  throve  before  the  school. 
.  .  .  Well,  on  the  gusty  way  to  Rodel  I  was  thinking 
of  the  pirate  whom  this  uncontaminated  islander 
would  like  to  hear  of.  I  would  tell  how  the  Canadian 
pirate — not  that  he  admits  he  was  a  pirate — came 
to  Mexico  in  1856.  4  No,  before  that,'  said  the  pirate ; 
4 1  was  up  and  down  the  coast  for  four  or  five  years 
before  that.  I  cut  Brazil  wood,  dye-wood,  and  sent 
it  to  Europe.  I  made  money  round  the  Horn,  with 
six  or  seven  vessels  at  a  time.'  Then  one  might  tell 
of  the  political  adventures  of  the  pirate,  when  the 
Liberal  soldiers  tried  to  shoot  him  ;   how  on  one 


AN  ANGLO-MEXICAN  PIRATE  431 


occasion  he  was  sending  arms  to  Acapulco  to  the 
Church's  soldiers — whom  he  thought  would  be 
successful — how  the  captain  of  a  Liberal  ship,  a  ship 
of  Diaz,  took  his  two  large  boats,  which  had  a  value 
of  three  thousand  pesos  each.  '  And  I  accused  the 
man  of  piracy.  The  consequence,'  said  he,  4  was 
that  my  captain,  an  Italian,  was  arrested  and  brought 
back  a  prisoner.  I  told  him  that  I  had  not  anything 
against  him,  and  that  if  he  wanted  to  load  dye-wood 
I  would  pay  him  well,  and  he  was  very  glad.  The 
other  one  said  no,  and  then  I  had  him  four  or  five 
months  in  the  prison  ;  afterwards  I  let  him  out.  .  .  . 
Those  were  the  revolutionary  times.  Tehuantepec 
was  fighting  Juchitan  ;  my  name  was  prominent,  but 
Matos  saved  my  life.  They  had  800  or  1000  men,  by 
God,  and  never  took  this  place.  We  used  to  fight 
like  devils.  Very  few  of  them  are  living  now — yes, 
very  few.'  One  would  relate  how  an  importer  of  the 
period  contrived  to  get  his  goods,  per  s.s.  4  El  Mos- 
quito,' to  La  Union,  the  port  of  Honduras,  in  which 
you  had  to  pay  no  custom  dues ;  it  was  a  harbour  of 
deposit  where  they  charged  you  twelve  centavos  for 
a  parcel ;  as  the  custom-house  officials  were  unpaid 
you  paid  them  and  they  went  their  way  ;  from  La 
Union  the  goods  were  fetched  by  little  sailing  ships. 
One  day,  though,  Maximilian's  Government  had  got 
possession  of  a  ship  of  our  particular  importer  ;  it 
was  destined  to  bring  arms  from  San  Jose  de  Guate- 
mala, and,  the  Liberals  coming  into  power,  a  horse- 
man was  dispatched  to  San  Jose  to  warn  them  not 
to  bring  these  arms.  And  the  importer  put  a  boat 
behind  a  yellow  cliff ;  the  vessel  came,  but  as  the 
surf  was  bad  one  could  not  go  aboard.  For  nearly 
two  days  there  was  no  news  from  the  captain.  The 
importer  went  to  see  the  military  chief,  Porfirio  Diaz, 


432      MEXICO,  THE  LAND  OF  UNREST 


told  him  that  his  vessel  might  be  bringing  arms,  and 
if  the  General  paid  for  them  and  paid  the  freight 
then  he  could  have  them.  4  We  shall  see  to  that,' 
said  Diaz.  Then  the  captain  and  four  other  men 
came  off  the  ship  at  night  and  hid  their  little  boat 
inside  a  wood.  They  were  arrested,  but  the  captain 
had  not  brought  the  arms,  and  then  the  Liberals 
were  angry,  and  they  let  the  vessel  go  upon  the  rocks. 
4  And  I  have  never  yet  been  paid  for  it,'  said  the 
importer.  4  Well,  I  happened  to  have  in  my  house 
about  forty  or  fifty  bottles  of  poisoned  brandy  and 
mescal,  because  a  force  was  coming  up  from  Juchitan. 
Another  body  under  General  Teran  of  Veracruz 
came  to  protect  the  house,  and  so  I  didn't  like  to 
leave  the  stuff  about.  I  never  killed  a  man,'  he  said. 
4  But  poisoning  is  very  rare.  It  was  the  only  thing 
which  I  could  do,  you  know.  I  lived  here  in  a  corner 
house,  it's  torn  down  now.  And  when  the  Empire 
caved  in  I  was  at  Oaxaca,  and  they  took  at  least  400 
cartloads  of  stuff  from  me.  When  General  Diaz  came 
down  to  Tehuantepec,  forty  years  later,  to  open  the 
railway,  he  sent  over  somebody  for  me,  because  he 
said  that  all  his  other  old  acquaintances  had  called 
on  him.  I  told  the  messenger  that  I  would  like  to 
kick  him,  and  they  said  I  was  unwell.  Yes,  yes,  the 
Empire  would  have  been  successful  but  for  the 
United  States.  My  books  and  papers  were  destroyed. 
I  was  the  only  British  subject ;  the  American 
Consul  came  to  my  house,  but  he  was  summoned  to 
the  Civil  War  at  home.  He  left  his  archives  and  his 
books,  and  they  were  all  destroyed.' 

The  church  of  Rodel  stands  upon  a  rocky  eminence 
beside  the  sea.  The  Norman  tower  has  been  lately 
struck  by  lightning,  so  that  angels  who  may  wish  to 
enter  at  a  distance  from  the  ground  are  not  required 


AN  ANGLO-MEXICAN  PIRATE  433 


to  fold  their  wings  completely.  And  within  the  tower, 
as  we  enter  from  a  sudden  fusillade  of  wind  and  rain, 
a  bat  swerves  upward.  In  the  church  a  broken 
window  has  admitted  all  the  sea-birds,  and  the  damp 
sea  air  has  coated  with  a  greenery  of  moss  that  ancient 
warrior  who  lies  in  his  recess  of  curious  and  lovely 
carvings. 


EPILOGUE 


TO  A  LITTLE  ENGLISH  GIRL 

When  you  begin  to  read,  dear  Isabella,  it  may  be 
that  you  will  read  this  book,  and  as  you  are  a  lady 
I  must  have  your  name  upon  the  page  you  will  be 
sure  to  look  at.  Once  upon  a  time  the  Puebla  post- 
man did  not  bring  me  any  letters,  and  you  said — do 
you  remember? — that  I  must  have  two  of  yours  as 
you  had  six  inside  the  cupboard.  Well,  now  you  must 
let  me  give  this  page,  the  epilogue,  to  you.  The 
postman  wouldn't  come,  and  so  we  spent  the  time — 
you,  John  and  I — in  dancing  up  and  down  the  patio 
of  that  old  hospital  of  the  Dominicans  in  which  your 
parents  used  to  live.  We  danced  each  morning  round 
the  mulberry,  although  there  was  no  mulberry,  we 
played  a  German  game  of  Fraulein's  which  I  never 
understood,  we  played  at  oranges  and  lemons  which 
all  people  understand,  for  someone  is  a  beautiful 
sweet  orange  and  the  other  person  is  a  bitter  lemon, 
and  the  person  whom  they  catch  as  he  is  walking  in 
between  their  arms,  he  has  to  choose  the  orange  or 
the  lemon  ;  and  as  I  was  going  you  were  sad,  because 
if  John  and  you  would  have  to  play  this  by  your- 
selves one  person  would  be  walking  and  the  other 
would  be  standing  still,  and  that  one,  so  you  said, 
would  have  to  be  an  orange  and  a  lemon,  both  of 

434 


Beside  the  church  of  La  Soledad  in  Oaxaca. 


EPILOGUE 


435 


them,  both  sweet  and  sour,  and  that  is  difficult.  But, 
Isabella,  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  be  sweet. 

I  think  a  lot  of  people  will  be  saying  that  there  is 
no  Isabella,  and  that  I  have  made  it  up  about  her, 
and  pretended  that  there  is  one,  so  that  I  could  use 
the  nice  word  '  Epilogue.'  It  isn't  true,  though,  and 
to  let  them  see  that  you  are  real  I  was  wanting  to  put 
in  your  photograph.  There  are  so  many  things,  you 
know,  that  will  make  people  angry  when  they  read 
this  book  ;  I  should  have  had  one  little  thing  to 
make  them  pleased. 


GLOSSARY 


[With  a  few  exceptions  there  have  not  been  put  into  this 
glossary  such  words  as  are  found  only  once.  These  are 
translated  in  the  text.  When  the  word  has  several  meanings 
in  English,  that  one  which  it  has  in  this  book  is  usually  given 
alone.] 

aborto  del  infierno,  abortion  of  hell. 
alcaldia,  office  of  an  alcalde  or  jailer. 
alcance,  balance  of  an  account ,  an  IOU. 
arroba,  Spanish  weight  of  25  lbs. 

atole  (Mex.  or  Cuba),  a  gruel  made  by  boiling  Indian  corn  or 

maize,  pounded  to  flour,  in  water  and  also  in  milk. 
bartolina,  cell. 

bejuco,  pliable  reed,  rattan.  The  bejuco  tree  grows  on  the 
mountain  side.  Its  wood  is  like  leather  and  with  one 
of  the  long,  lithe  bejuco  canes,  that  will  bend  but 
not  break,  it  is  said  that  forty  men  can  be  beaten  to 
death. 

cabo,  sergeant. 

calabozo,  cell. 

canasto,  large  basket.     Canastos !  int.  denoting  surprise  or 

annoyance, 
capellania,  pious  foundation. 
carbonero,  charcoal-burner. 
caridad,  charity,  alms. 
carta  cuenta,  account  of  what  a  man  owes. 
cecina,  dry,  salt  meat. 

chicle,  glutinous  substafice  produced  by  the  chicozapote  tree  and  by 
the  brown  apple-shaped  fruit  of  the  zapote  itself  Chewing 
gum.  In  Colima  it  is  used  to  make  small  statues  and 
curious  figures. 

chile,  American  red  pepper  [capsicum  annuum]. 

cohechador,  lit.  briber. 


437 


438 


GLOSSARY 


compadre,  co-godfather,  a  relation  of  importance  and  scrupu- 
lously observed.1 
companero,  comrade,  compeer. 
cuatro,  four. 
diez  mil,  ten  thousand. 
directivo,  adj.  directive. 
domestica,  female  house-servant.  * 
duque,  duke. 

encargado,  agent,  attorney,  commissioner. 
en  fagina,  obligatory  and  unpaid  labour. 
enganchado,  contract  labourer. 
enganchador,  contractor  of  labourers. 
fabula,  fable,  a  feigned  story,  a  legend,  rumour. 
finca,  farm,  landed  property. 

floripondio,  magnolia.  A  tree  of  great  beauty  with  very  large 

white  fragrant  flowers, 
frijoles  (Amer.),  kidney-beans  [phaseolus  vulgaris], 
granadita,  thejruit  of  the  pomegranate  tree. 
hacienda,  plantation,  farm. 
hacendado,  owner  of  a  hacienda. 
henequen^fere  of  the  agave  plant. 

ingles  de  marras,  lit.  Englishman  oj  long  ago,  contemptuous 

expression :  that  Englishman. 
interventor,  comptroller,  supervisor. 
jefatura,  office  (in  both  senses)  of  ajefe. 

jefe  politico,  political  head,  chief ;  an  officer  subordinate  to  the 

State  governor. 
juez  auxiliar,  assistant  judge. 
llano,  adj.  plain, 

machete,  long  knife,  cutlass,  cane-knife. 
manglar,  plantation  of  mangrove  trees. 

mecate,  rope  or  cord  made  of  the  maguey  or  American  agave. 
mescal,  intoxicating  liquor  made  from  the  maguey. 
meson,  inn. 

mestizo,  half  breed  (though  to  be  accurate  it  should  only  be 

1  '  As  a  mark  of  regard,'  says  Carl  Lumholtz  in  '  Unknown  Mexico,' 
'  one  of  the  customs-officers  invited  me  to  be  godfather  of  his  child. 
I  had  to  support  the  baby's  head  during  the  ceremony,  while  an 
elderly  woman  held  the  little  body.  According  to  custom  I  gave 
25  centavos  to  every  member  of  the  party,  and  a  more  adequate 
present  to  the  child.  From  now  I  was  called  "compadre"  by  most 
of  those  in  the  village,  and  that  sacred  relation  was  established 
between  myself  and  the  baby's  family  which  is  deemed  of  so  much 
importance  in  Mexico. ' 


GLOSSARY 


439 


applied  to  a  person  whose  father  is  white  and  whose 

mother  is  Indian), 
milpa  (Mex.),  maize-field,  planted  or  implanted.    Has  come  to 

mean  the  agricultural  labourer's  private  patch  of  land, 

which  he  cultivates  at  certain  seasons, 
mozo,  youth,  lad,  man-servant. 
muera  !  may  he  die  !  an  exclamation, 
padrino,  godfather. 
papaito,  little  father  (colloquial). 

patio,  courtyard,  open  space  in  front  of  a  house  or  behind  it. 
pelado,  lit.  plucked  (colloquial),  to  be  penniless,  a  nobody. 
peon,  day-labourer,  peasant,  foot-soldier,  pawn. 
peso,  silver  coin  in  value  about  2s.  and  containing  100  centavos. 

Usually  translated  as  dollar  Mex. 
presidente  del  presidio,  head  of  the  house  of  correction,  prefect 

of  the  convicts. 
pues,  well  then,  an  interjection, 
pulque,  native  liquor  (see  p.  88  n.). 

revista  de  comisario,  examination  by  a  delegate,  a  commissary. 
serape  (Mex.),  a  narrow  blanket  worn  by  men  or  thrown  over  the 
saddle. 

soga  vaquera,  cowherd's  rope. 

soldadera,  female  companion  of  soldier,  in  various  capacities, 
sorteos  de  hoy,  drawings  of  to-day  (at  the  lottery), 
soy  tambien,  /  am  also. 
suplente,  substitute. 

tienda  de  raya,  lit.  shop  within  bounds  ;  shop  of  the  estate  where 

purchase  is  obligatory. 
tortilla  (Mex.),  pancake  made  of  Indian  corn,  mashed  and  baked 

on  an  earthen  pan. 
valiente,  gallant,  champion. 
vara,  rod,  staff,  emblem  of  authority. 
vibora  de  sangre,  species  of  viper. 
vistador,  travelling  registrar. 
viva  !  may  he  live  !  an  exclamation. 

volan,  a  box  on  four  wheels,  a  Yucatecan  carriage.  The  wheels 
on  one  side  or  on  both  may  with  impunity  be  climbing 
over  boulders  and  making  the  box  assume  an  angle  of 
45  or  more  degrees. 

zopilote  (or  sopilote),  buzzard,  a  species  of  hawk  [vultur 
aura]. 


A  FEW  NOTES  ON  PRONUNCIATION 


(a)  THE  SPANISH  LANGUAGE  IN  MEXICO 

The  pronunciation  of  Spanish  is  different  in  Mexico  from 
what  it  is  in  Spain.  e  Colombians  and  Mexicans  do  presume 
to  speak  in  general  terms  and  among  educated  people,'  I  am 
told  by  Don  Federico  Gamboa,  the  notable  novelist,  who  has 
been  for  some  time  the  Mexican  Minister  at  Brussels,  'a 
better  Spanish  than  the  one  spoken  in  Spain.'  Nowadays 
one  hears  a  good  many  people  in  the  Motherland  who  go 
back  to  the  old  pronunciation  of  f  c '  and  f  z '  before  certain 
vowels ;  but  the  lisp  with  which  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  was 
burdened,  and  which  first  the  courtiers  and  then  all  the 
country  imitated,  is  as  yet  considered  by  the  Spanish- 
Americans  to  be  the  universal  practice  of  the  Spaniards, 
while  they  have  themselves  not  swerved  from  the  old  method 
of  pronouncing  fzarzuela'  and  e  Cervantes'  just  as  they  are 
spelled,  instead  of  'tharthuela'  and  1  Thervantes.'  Also  the 
*  11,'  which  generally  in  Spain  has  the  sound  of  1  Hi '  in  the 
English  word  e  million,'  is  in  Mexico,  as  in  Andalucia,  pro- 
nounced like  a  double  y,  e.g.  caballo  =  cabay'yo  and  polio  = 
poy'yo;  and  'regarding  the  pronunciation,'  says  Senor  Gamboa, 
'of  the  letter  " x,"  the  dispute  has  not  been  settled  yet,  and 
we  in  Mexico  insist  on  pronouncing  it  as  in  the  olden  times, 
i.e.  like  the  "  j  "  or  your  English  "  h,"  for  instance  Oaxaca, 
Xalapa.  .  .  .  There  is  another  great  difference,'  he  says  : 
'the  far  sweeter  pronunciation  of  the  language  among  us. 
The  Spaniards  speak  more  roughly  and  close.  .  .  .  Our  local 
pronunciation  differs  between  the  States  as  in  Spain  between 
the  Provinces.  I  think  the  reason  of  it  is  an  ethnological 
one,  on  account  of  the  various  races  and  tribes  which  origin- 
ally populated  them.'  In  the  State  of  Chiapas  alone  there 
may  be  heard,  according  to  Manuel  Orozco  y  Berra  in  his 
excellent  'Geografia  de  las  Lenguas  de  Mexico'  (Mexico, 
1864),  the  Maya,  the  Lacandon,  the  Chafiabal,  the  Choi,  the 


440 


A  FEW  NOTES  ON  PRONUNCIATION  441 


Punctunc,  the  Chiche,  the  Mame,  the  Tzotzil,  the  Tzendal,  the 
Zoque,  the  Mexican  and  the  Chiapaneco  languages,  whereas 
the  Casdal,  the  Trokeck,  the  Quelen  and  the  Zotzlen  have 
disappeared.  Some  of  these  are  aboriginal,  some  were 
carried  by  invading  hosts  of  Mayas,  some — the  Tzotzil  and 
the  Tzendal — were  the  fruit  of  the  Toltec  invasion  from 
Mexico  to  Guatemala,  which  in  Chiapas  found  the  Quelen, 
and  from  that  produced  the  other  two,  while  the  Mexican 
language  was  introduced  by  Ahuizotl's  army  and  the  Chia- 
paneco is  perhaps  the  offspring  of  Toltec  and  Chiche,  perhaps 
it  is  indeed  the  oldest  language  of  the  new  world,  the 
language  of  some  colonising  Nicaraguan  tribes  who  were 
governed  by  two  military  men  selected  by  the  priests.  It 
is  apparent  that  the  Spanish  language,  in  so  far  as  it  is 
spoken  by  the  natives  of  Indian  blood,  has  been  superimposed 
upon  a  great  variety  of  languages,  so  that  it  will  vary  from 
district  to  district.  On  the  one  hand  it  is  thus  altered  from 
the  Spanish  of  the  Motherland,  while  it  is  unaltered  also 
from  the  mediaeval  and  correcter  Spanish.  The  variety  of 
people  who  have,  more  or  less,  adopted  this  old  Spanish  will 
be  understood  if  only  from  the  vast  divergence  in  develop- 
ment between  their  native  tongues  ;  at  one  end  of  the  scale 
are  those  which  have  considerable  stores  of  folk-songs  and  of 
sacred  songs,  whereas  at  the  other  end  is  that  language  of 
Oaxaca  to  which  the  Illustrious  Bishop  Lorenzana  alludes  in 
his  pastoral  of  the  year  1770.  fIt  can  only  be  spoken,'  he 
says,  '  by  day,  for  each  word  is  helped  out  by  gestures  which 
cannot  be  observed  when  the  light  fails.' 

(6)  THE  MAYA  LANGUAGE 

With  regard  to  the  pronunciation  of  this  language,  certain 
sounds  occur  that  we,  with  the  Latin  alphabet,  can  scarcely 
reproduce.  It  is  sufficient  for  the  purpose  of  this  book  to 
note  in  the  first  place  that,  answering  as  closely  as  possible 
to  the  pronunciation,  the  form  e  Dzitas'  is  employed  for 
that  railway  junction  and  not e  Qitas '  with  an  inverted  C,  as 
in  the  local  guide.  The  inversion  of  the  letter  f  e,'  by  the 
way,  is  used  by  Dr.  Jakob  Schcembs  of  Dortmund  in  his 
monograph  ('Beitrage  zur  Kenntniss  der  Mayasprachen,' 
1 906)  in  order  to  represent  a  sound  which  is  midway  between 
the  German  4  6 '  and  4  e.'  Secondly,  the  4  x '  in  Maya  is  pro- 
nounced 4  sh,'  so  that  Uxmal  becomes  Ushmal,  and  Xcumpich, 


442     A  FEW  NOTES  ON  PRONUNCIATION 


Shcumpich.  This  allusion  to  the  Maya  language  is,  of  course, 
no  more  than  touching  the  fringe  of  a  subject  upon  which 
I  am  not  competent  to  write,  but  for  those  who  wish  to 
pursue  it  one  may  recommend  the  '  Chrestomatie  Maya '  by 
Comte  H.  de  Charency  (in  the  '  Actes  de  la  Societe  Philo- 
logique,'  Vols.  XIX  and  XX,  Paris,  1891).  fDe  toutes  le 
langues,'  he  says,  fde  l'Amerique  Precolombienne  il  n'en 
est  guere  dont  1' etude  presente  autant  d'interet  que  le 
Maya.'  It  is  only  in  Yucatan,  where  Maya  prevails,  that  it 
is  a  general  custom  for  the  Spanish-speaking  classes  to 
acquaint  themselves,  usually  in  childhood,  with  the  native 
language. 

(c)  MEXICAN  PLACE-NAMES 

As  was  noted  on  their  first  occurrence  in  this  book, 
Chihuahua  is  pronounced  as  an  Englishman  would  pronounce 
Che-wa-wa,  and  Oaxaca  as  he  would  pronounce  Wa-hacca. 
With  regard  to  other  place-names  mentioned  here,  the 
ordinary  mediaeval  Spanish  rule,  whatever  be  the  derivation 
of  the  name,  is  applicable.  Guanajuato,  for  instance,  is 
derived  from  Guanaxhuato,  a  Tarascan  Indian  word  signify- 
ing '  Hill  of  the  Frogs '  ;  in  a  pronouncing  handbook  for 
English  readers  I  suppose  it  would  be  spelled  Gwanachato 
(the  e  ch '  being  as  in  the  Scottish  '  loch ').  It  was  the  custom 
of  Spaniards  to  convert  the  native  names  by  catching  rather 
at  the  sound  than  at  the  sense  ;  thus  with  the  Nahuatl  word 
Cuauhnahuac — '  place  of  the  eagle,' — for  they  altered  that 
to  them  unpronounceable  name  into  Cuernavaca,  which  in 
Spanish  means  '  cow's  horn.'  The  town  is  situated  very 
picturesquely  on  a  narrow  ridge,  so  that  neither  of  these 
names  is  inapposite.  .  .  .  The  name  of  the  whole  country 
and  of  the  capital  is  pronounced  in  accordance  with  the 
spelling  '  Mejico,'  that  is  to  say  what  an  Englishman  would 
spell  phonetically  Mechikko,  the  '  ch '  again  being  as  in  the 
word  floch.' 


A  NOTE  ON  MEXICAN  WORDS  IN  THE 
LANGUAGES  OF  EUROPE 

It  may  not  be  generally  known  that  in  the  European 
languages  a  certain  number,  perhaps  eighteen,  fairly  common 
words  have  come  from  Mexico.  '  Tomatl '  is  the  origin  of  our 
tomato,  while  our  word  jalap  is,  of  course,  from  the  town 
Jalapa,  or  Xalapa.  [White  jalap  from  Michoacan,  the  root  of 
the  Convolvulus  Michoacan,  is  usually  called  Michoacan.] 
And  the  most  common  of  these  words  is  chocolate,  whose 
derivation  can  be  found,  with  a  great  deal  of  other  fascinating 
material,  in  the  { Diccionario  de  Aztequismos '  by  Cecilio  A. 
Robelo  (published  by  the  author  in  1904  at  Cuernavaca). 
Chocolate  comes  from  .roc0  =  sour,  acrid,  and  atl  =  water, 
because  cocoa  with  water  and  without  sweetness  is  very 
bitter,  and  thus  the  Mexicans  take  it.  They  also  call  it 
cacauatl  =  water  of  cocoa.  The  cocoa  tree,  whose  origin  is 
in  tropical  America,  is  itself  derived  from  cacahua — cuahuitl : 
cacahuatl  {cuahuitl  =  tree),  in  distinction  from  cacahuate  =  tlaca- 
cahuatl  or  cocoa  of  the  ground. 


443 


STATES  AND  POPULATION  OF  MEXICO 


STATES  AND  TERRI- 

ELEVATION 

ABBREVIATIONS 

POPULATION 
OF  STATES 
1910. 

TORIES. 

STATE  CAPITAL. 

OVER  SEA. 

OF  STATES. 

feet 

Aguascalientes  . 

Aguascalientes  . 

6280 

Ags.  . 

118,978 

Campeche  . 

Campeche  . 

sea-level 

Camp.  . 

85,795 

Chiapas 

1  uxtla  Gutierrez  . 

1776 

Chis. 

436,817 

Chihuahua  . 

Chihuahua  . 

4600 

Chi. 

405,265 

Coahuua 

Saltillo 

5000 

Coah.  . 

367,652 

Colima 

Colima 

1538 

Col. 

77,704 

Durango 

Durango 

6207 

Dgo.  . 

436,147 

Guanajuato . 

Guanajuato . 

7000 

Gto. 

1,075,270 

Guerrero 

Chilpancingo 

3659 

Gro. 

605,437 

Hidalgo 

Pachuca 

8000 

Hgo.  . 

641,895 

Jalisco 

Guadalajara 

6100 

Jal. 

1,202,802 

Mexico 

Toluca 

8761 

Mex.  . 

975,019 

Michoacan  . 

Morelia 

6200 

Mich.  . 

991,649 

Morelos 

Cuernavaca . 

4500 

Mor. 

179,814 

Nuevo  Leon 

Monterey  . 

1500 

N.L. 

368,929 

Oaxaca 

Oaxaca 

5067 

Oax. 

1,041,035 

Puebla 

Puebla 

7100 

Pueb.  . 

1,092,456 

Queretaro  . 

Queretaro  . 

5947 

Qro. 

243,515 

ban  Luis  Potosi  . 

San  Luis  Potosi  . 

6290 

S.L.P.  . 

624,748 

Sinaloa 

Culiacan 

120 

Sin. 

323,499 

Sonora 

Hermosillo  . 

675 

Son. 

262,545 

Tabasco 

San  Juan  Bautista 

80 

Tab. 

183,708 

Tamaulipas . 

Ciudad  Victoria  . 

1473 

Tam.  . 

249,253 

Tepic  (Ter.) 

Tepic  . 

3069 

Tepic  . 

171,837 

Tlaxcala 

Tlaxcala 

7500 

Tlax.  . 

183,805 

Veracruz    .       .  • 

Jalapa 

4609 

Ver.  (orV.C.) 

1,124,368 

Yucatan 

Merida 

25 

Yuc.  . 

337,020 

Zacatecas  . 

Zacatecas  . 

7500 

Zac. 

475,863 

Lower  California  (Ter. ) 

La  Paz 

sea-level 

B.C.  . 

52,244 

Federal  District  . 

City  of  Mexico  . 

7434 

D.F. 

719,052 

Quintana  Roo  . 

Santa    Cruz  de 
Bravo 

Q.R.  . 

9,086 

15,063,207 

444 


INDEX 


(The  names  of  books  and  ne? 
A 

Abelardo's  post,  99 
Acanceh  [Yuc],  37,  156 
Acapulco  [Gro.],  261,  271 
Acayucan  [Ver.],  285,  286 
Acuna  (Manuel),  the  poet,  135,  338 
et  seq. 

itgua  Prieta  [Son.],  261,  262 
Aguascalientes,  her  pitiful  governor, 
221,  323  n. 

—  her  young  men,  273 

Aguila  Oil  Co.,  84  n.,  237,  300  n., 

301  n. 
Aguilar,  the  priest,  49 

—  (Pablo),  the  master,  151 

—  (Vicente),  the  flogger,  151 
Aguirre  on  Seler,  104 
Ahumada  (General),  244 
Albert  (Dr. ),  424  et  seq. 
Algunas  Cam/pafiaSy  211 
Alhondiga     de    Granaditas,  its 

inmates,  202 
Alonso  (Carlos),  the  father,  187 

—  (Feliciano),  the  minor,  187,  188 

—  (Valentin),  the  minor,  187,  188 
Altamirano,  the  poet,  353  et  seq. 
Alvarez  (Juan),  the  firebrand,  354 
Amabilis,  the  lawyer,  112 
American  ambassador  {see  Wilson) 

—  Army,  245  and  n.,  319 

—  Consul  at  Veracruz,  183 


>apers  are  printed  in  italics. ) 

Americans  in  Mexico,  225,  246 

Ancona  (Abelardo),  his  swift  end, 
11  second  n.,  45 

Ancona,  the  affectionate  priest,  48 

Andrade  (Jose),  notary  public,  180, 
181,  187,  195 

Angel's  hair,  128,  129 

Anti-re-electionists,  263,  291,  292 

Anti-Slavery  and  Aborigines  Pro- 
tection Society,  23,  155 

Apaches,  The  plundering,  140 

Aragon  (General),  273 

Archbishop  of  Yucatan,  his  diffi- 
culties, 47,  156 

Archives,  Destruction  of,  100 

Arcobedo,  an  editor,  25 

Argaez  y  Milanes  (Bernabe),  his 
garden,  179 

Argentine's  debt,  298 

—  maize,  302 

Aristegui   (Enrique  Munoz),  his 

flabbiness,  21 

 and  the  voice  of  reason,  22 

 his  subservience,  24 

 forcible  enrolment,  32 

 generosity,  33 

 departure,  52,  53 

 and  the  election,  113 

 the  human  heart,  194 

Army,  Forcible  enrolment  in,  21, 

30  et  seq. 


446 


INDEX 


Army,  the  soldaderas,  123,  234 
Arroyo,  the  half-witted,  205 
Astilleros,  his  torture,  204 
Atlixco  [Pueb.],  273 
Avenirdes  nations  Hispano-Arneri- 

caines,  318  n. 
Avila  (Dr.),  24 

Ayala,  the  philanthropist,  177 
Ayora  (Medina),    his  bold  face, 

53  et  seq. 
Axolotl,  The,  270  n. 
Aztec  governor  of  Tlaxcala,  123 
—  nobles  at  Cholula,  130 


B 

Baca,  49 

Bacon,  quoted,  92  n. 
Baeza,  his  self-defence,  184 
Balsas  River  [Gro.],  262,  371 
Bandala     (Abraham),    the  aged 

governor,  221 
Baranda  (Pedro),  60 
Barbachano,  the  impresario,  18  n., 

19  n. 

Barbarous  Mexico,  10  etseq. 
Baring  (Mr.),  417 
Batalla  (Diodoro),  the  orator,  254, 
255 

Batres  (Leopoldo),  inspector  and 
manufacturer  of  antiquities,  104 
et  seq.  * 

 his  qualifications,  109 

Bazaine,  65,  66 

Beerbohm's  caricature,  37 

Belem,  11  second  n.,  15,  16, 
314  n. 

Betancourt  (Dr.),  Inaccessibility  of, 
33 

Blackwood's  Magazine,  quoted,  47  n. 
Blake,  railway  manager,  21,  51, 
170 

Blanco  (Daniel),  his  madness,  27 


Blanquete  (Colonel),  and  the  burn- 
ing Mayas,  6  n. 
Bourget,  Reference  to,  277 
Braham  (d.d.),  his  awful  admis- 
sion, 39 

 his  experience   in  Russia, 

39 

Braniff  (Oscar),  263 
Bravo  (General  Ignacio),  4  n.  et  seq., 
21 

British  Charge  d 'Affaires,  319  n. 

—  Consul  at  Laguna,  144,  145 
 Merida,  35 

 General,  314  n. 

—  dominion,  Native  of,  163,  164 

—  Honduras,  Native  of,  19 
 its  neighbour,  4  n. 

—  Minister,  17,  41,  302,  314  n. 

—  sea  captain,  35 

—  ships  and  Yucatan,  295  n. 

—  Vice-Consul,  314  n. 
Buchanan    (James),    of  U.S.A., 

295  n. 

Bullfighter,  Advantage  of  being  a, 
100,  101 

Bulnes  (Francisco),  the  historian, 

254,  318  n. 
Burgos  (Miguel),  Pursuit  of,  151, 

152 

C 

Cabrera  (Estrada),  of  Guatemala, 
202,  222,  223 

—  (Miguel),     of    Puebla,  205, 
226 

Cahuantzi  (Colonel  Prospero),  228 
Calderon  (F.  Garcia),  216  second  n. 
Calderon  de  la  Barca  (Madame), 

129,  390,  410 
Calero  (Manuel),  279,  293 
California,  6,  317,  325 
|   Camacho  (Sebastian),  418  and  n. 


INDEX 


447 


Camara  (Raymundo)  and  his 
orchard,  175 

—  y  Camara,  134 

Campeche,  alleged  custom  of  her 
barbers,  7 

—  her  fauna.  9 
 desolation,  29 

—  Notice  in  a  church  of,  46 

—  Barandas  of,  60 

—  144  et  seq.,  342,  et  passim 

Can  (Juan  Pablo),  his  deposition, 
195,  196 

—  (Santiago),  his  information, 
195  et  seq. 

Cananea  [Son.],  246 

Canche  (Antonio)  and  the  refugee, 

173 
Canedo,  425 

Canto  (Quintin),  opposed  to 
marriage,  160,  161 

Canton  (Delio  Moreno),  the  candi- 
date, 44,  112,  113 

—  (General),  his  kindness,  48 
Capitan  (Monsieur),  107,  108 
Carbajal  (Judge),  263,  265 
Carillo  (Antonio),  his  career,  44 
Carlyle  quoted,  199 
Carranza  the  imperialist,  356 

—  (Venustiano),  283 

Carrillo  (Cristobal),  the  hunter, 
198 

Carroll  (Lewis),  248  n. 
Casasus,  the  Ambassador,  136 
Casares  (Manuel),  the  unprotected, 
172 

Casoni  (A.F.),  quoted,  241 
Castillo,  his  families,  48 

—  Isidro,  his  head,  25 

Catmis  [Yuc],  Life  at,  51,  183, 
420  n. 

Cemetery,  higher  and  lower,  201 
Censorship,  14,  35,  41,  42,  230 
first  n. 


Centro    Electoral  Independiente, 

110  et  seq. 
Cerdan  (Aquiles),  226,  229 
CerroPrieto  [Chi.],  267 
Cervantes,  an  old  family,  130 
Chacmay  [Yuc],  fine  old  farm, 

166 

Chapultepec,  222,  360,  361 
Character  of  Mexicans,  x  et  seq., 
391 

Charles  III.  (King),  273  n. 

—  V.  and  the  language,  440 
Chatham  (Lord),  quoted,  294 
Chavero  (Alfredo),  his  drama,  61, 

62 

Chi,  the  avenged,  150 
Chiapas,  Monuments  in,  104 

—  tolerance  of  her  police,  203 

—  260,  271  n. 

Chichen  Itza  [Yuc],  156,  170 
Chichi  [Yuc],  property  of  Molina, 
187 

Chihuahua,  her  size,  127 

—  land  of  Terrazas,  136 

—  her  peculiar  governor,  137 

—  31,  65,  211,  216  first  n.,  229  et 
seq. ,  236  et  passim 

Children,  their  absurd  treatment, 
141 

Chilip  [Yuc],  a  farm,  166 
Chilon  [Chis.],  Atrocities  at,  203 
Chilpancingo  [Gro.],  261,  345,  369 
Chim  (Marcelino),  the  cow-herd,  181 
Chinese  in  Torreon,  their  plight, 
xi,  306 

—  in  Quintana  Roo,  their  plight, 
6n. 

Cholula  [Pueb.],  130 

Chousel,  secretary  to  P.  Diaz,  82 

Church  in  Mexico,  its  disgrace,  50  n. 

 its  power,  70  et  seq. 

  283,  284,  322,  331 

—  in  Yucatan,  its  condition,  46 


448 


INDEX 


Cientificos,  80,  131,  171,  172,  216 
and  second  n.,  247,  289,  298,  299 

'Cinco  de  Mayo,'  421 

Cirerol  (Manuel),  the  destroyer,  149, 
150 

Ciudad  Juarez  [Chi.],   235,  242, 

248  n.,  263,  266  et  seq.,  292 
Ciudadela,  211 
Classes  in  Mexico,  77  et  seq. 
Clough  (A.  H. ),  quoted,  52 
Coahuila,  216  first  n.,  222,  229, 

236,  283 
Coatepec  [Ver.],  291 
Cock-fighting,  49,  392,  393 
Coignard  (Abbe),  quoted,  322 
Coliraa,  her  police,  91 

—  and  her  governor,  277,  278 

—  238 

Comonfort  (President),  70,  267  n. 
Confession  in  Yucatan,  169 

—  Unheard,  of  Velasquez,  205 
Congress,  Mexican  House  of,  251  et 

seq.,  278  et  seq.,  354,  361,  362 
Conkal  [Yuc],  151 
Constitution,  Invoking  of  the,  119, 

221 

—  long  disregarded,  x,  xiii,  265 

—  at  elections,  289 

—  being  made,  354 
Constitutional,  70,  79,  119  et  seq., 

215 

Contradictions  in  Mexico,  201,  211 
Convent  life  {see  Puebla) 
Coreans  in  Yucatan,  159  and  n. 
Coria  (Manuel),  the  old  gentleman, 
275 

Corona  (General),  65,  244,  419 
Corral  (Ramon),  his  exertions,  138 
et  seq. 

 and  the  brothel,  140 

 his  unpopularity,  215  et  seq., 

232,  271 
 his  mode  of  life,  231 


Corral  (Ramon)  and  Diaz,  259, 
260 

 Vanishing  of,  276 

Correo  Espanol,  El,  quoted,  142 
Correspondant,  Le,  quoted,  71  n. 
Cortes,  how  considered,  349  n. 
Cosio  (General),  32,  248,  250 
Cota  (Claudimiro),  421 

—  (Colonel),  421 
Covarrubias  (Miguel),  337  n. 

—  the  poet,  337  and  n.,  340 
Cowdray  (Lord)  and  the  Pope's 

advice,  84  n. 

—  his  reputation,  236,  237 

—  his  firm,  237  n. 

—  his  hope,  255 

—  and  Acayucan,  285,  286 

—  and  the  slaughtered  Indians,  286 

—  his  colossal  concessions,  300  n. , 
301  n. 

—  and  Madero,  301  n. 

—  and  his  convictions,  302 
Cravioto,  425 

Creelman  (James),  of  U.S.A.,  10, 
22,  69,  71  et  seq.,  81,  110,  111, 
130,  223 

Croatia's  Banus,  Analogy  of,  295  n. 
Croix  (Viceroy  Carlos  Francisco  de), 
4  n. 

Cromwell,  quoted,  150 
Cuauhtemoc,  216,  218 
Cuautla  [Mor.],  Looting  at,  306 
Cubans,    their    corruption,  209, 
297  n. 

—  their  alleged  vileness,  233  first  n. 

—  man  of  war,  323  n. 

Cuellar  (Colonel  Samuel  Garcia),  215 
Cuernavaca  [Mor.],  29, 107,  234  n., 

261,  273  et  seq. 
Cuitiin  the  Maya,  24 
Cunninghame    Graham,  quoted, 

xi  n. 

Curiel  (General),  52,  112 


INDEX 


449 


Current  Literature,  quoted,  x,  42 
Cusi  (Dante),  the  Italian,  136 

D 

Daily  Graphic,  quoted,  287 
Daily  Mail  and  The  Times,  264 
 their  special  correspondent, 

265,  290 

 their  master-stroke,  289 

Daily  News,  quoted,  301  n. 
Danish  peasants  and  their  priests, 

46  n. 

Dante,  Surmise  as  to,  37 
Dario  (Ruben),  of  Nicaragua,  363 
and  n. 

Darling  (Mr.  Justice),  his  method, 
xiii,  22 

 some  of  his  critics,  36 

second  n. ,  37  n. 

—  and  the  bottle,  36  second  n. 

 his  jokes,  36  second  n., 

37  n. 

 Chances  of  removal  of, 

37 

 his  appearance,  39  n. 

De  Charency  (Gomte  H. ),  442 

De  la  Barra.  (Francisco),   42  n., 

205  n.,  250,  276,  301  n. ,  303, 304, 

313  et  seq.,  322 
De  la  Cadena  (General),  420 
De  la  Torre,  the  profligate,  150 
De  Lamadrid  (Enrique  O  ),  278 
De  Villiers,  276 
Debts  of  the  Indians,  148,  153 
Decorations,  8,  108,  342,  407 
Dehesa  (Teodoro),  117,  190,  220, 

238,  250,  251 
Del  Pozo  (Augustin),  his  statement, 

297  n. 

Del  Rio,  Widow  of,  138 
Democracy  in  Mexico,  73  et  seq., 
223,  257,  270  n.,  281 
2  G 


Deputies,  Burning  of  House  of,  100 

—  and  suplentes,  309 
Deputy,  The  dead,  124 
Diario,  El,  its  art  editor,  12,  13 
Diario  OJicial,  its  bombast,  29 
Diario  Yucateco,  El.  its  circulation, 

22 

 and  the  evil  spirit,  23  et.seq. 

 its     acquaintance  with 

prison,  25 
 warning   and  exulta- 
tion, 38,  38  n. 

 beloved  editor,  53 

'  absurdities,  191 

Diaz  (Bernal),  233  second  n. 

—  (Carmen  R.  de),  266,  286,  324 

—  ('Chato'),  133 

—  (General  Felix),  133,  218  and  n., 
293  n.,  313  et  seq. 

—  (President  Porfirio),  generally, 
ix  et  seq. 

 and  Bravo,  4  n. 

 his  favouritism,  7 

 and  Creelman,  10, 71  et  seq. 

 rebukes  Yaquis,  10 

 'Czar  of  Mexico,'  12 

 and  Mata,  16 

 his  system,  19  n. 

 and  O.  Molina,  24 

 on  telegraphing,  35  n. 

 and  The  Times,  42 

 his  prestige,  43 

 considered  by  Lerdo  de 

Tejada,  56  et  seq. 

 and  Justice,  56  n.,  101 

 Oaxaca,  58  et  seq. ,  229 

 his  tears  at  station,  58 

 at  Icamole,  60 

  233  first  n. 

 head  and  ears,  60 

 promises,  66 

 and  re-election,  66,  lAetseq. 

 foreigners,  66,  75 


450 


INDEX 


Diaz  (President  Porfirio),  and  the 

Church,  70  et  seq. 

 democracy,  73  et  seq. 

 on  the  different  classes,  77 

et  seq.,  130 
 compared  with  King  of 

Montenegro,  80  n. 
 and  the  cientificos,  80, 

131 

 as  hacendado,  88 

 and  the  archives,  100 

 an  election,  110  et  seq. 

 governors,  115  et  seq. 

 Dehesa,  190 

 how  imagined,  199 

 and  Paz,  211 

 the  revolution,  214  et 

seq. 

 Madero,  221,  222,  322 

et  seq. 

 his  '  friends,'  233,  258 

et  seq.,  272 

 Corral,  231,  232 

 the  troops,  245,  262 

 merchant,  260 

 his  resignation,  264  et  seq. 

 and  Figueroa,  271 

 his  letter  to  the  Chamber, 

280 

 his  flight,  285  et  seq. 

 and  Huerta,  287  et  seq. 

 his  deafness,  361 

 principles,  381 

 career,  405  et  seq. 

 and  Woolrich,  431,  432 

—  (Porfirito),  241,  416 

—  (Primitivo),  25,  94  et  seq. 

—  Dufoo,  128  n. 
Diccionario  de  Aztequismos,  443 
Dictamen  El,  on  Yucatan,  190,  192 
Dolores  [Gto.j,  346  and  n.,  349 
'Dos  de  Abril,'  Discussion  of  vic- 
tory of,  63,  64 


Douglas,  U.S.A.,  262 
Drame  Mexicain,  Le,  241 
Durango,  239,  261,  268  n. 
Dynamite,  Importation  of,  171, 172 
Dyott  (G-.  M.),  the  aviator,  18  n., 
19  n. 

Dzil  (Desiderio),  shopkeeper  and 

judge,  186 
Dzitas  [Yuc],  20 

E 

Eagle  Oil  Co.  {see  Aguila  Oil  Co.) 
Ebnakan  [Yuc],  38 
Education,  209,  281,  282,  353 

—  at  one's  peril,  157,  158 
El  Faro,  88,  89 

El  Paso  [Chi.],  34 
Elagabalus,  his  days,  382,  383 
Elizaga  ('Chato'),   his  attempt, 
102 

Elizalde  (Pedro),  his  enterprise, 

27  n.,  28  n. 
Emerson,  quoted,  276 
Emigration  from  Mexico,  239 
Enganchados,  Hiring  of,  87  et  seq. 

—  Life  of,  87  et  seq. 

—  Death  of,  333,  334 
Ensenada  [B.C.],  247  n. 
Epatlan,  Action  of,  60 
Escalante  (Eusebio),  49 
Escamilla  (Juan),  the  hunter,  197, 

198 

—  (Transito),    the   hunter,  197, 
198 

Escoffie,  his  printing  house,  174 
Espita  [Yuc],  20 

Esquivel  (Asuncion),  why  flogged, 
185 

—  (Mauricia)  and  the  threat,  167 
Evidence,  Value  of  author's,  xii, 

6  et  seq. 
Exaggeration,  Courteous,  17 


INDEX 


451 


F 

Fernandez,  senile  Minister  of  Jus- 
tice, 92,  93 

Fernandez  Boo  (Benigno),the  sailor, 
26,  27 

 (Manuel),  the  convict,  25,  26 

Ferraez  (Ricardo),  the  administra- 
tor, 196,  197 
Figaro,  Le,  229 

Figueroa  (Ambrosio),  261,  262,  271, 
272 

Flandrau  (Charles),  his  humorous 

book,  9,  13,  128  n. 
Flogging,  Orgy  of,  26 

—  Governor  on,  28 

—  for  not  having  kissed,  155,  164 

—  at  San  Antonio,  174 

—  at  Noh-nayum,  etc.,  180  etseq., 
190 

Flores  (Damian),  261,  262 

—  Magon,  82,  224,  249  n. 
Forced  labour,  143,  155,  165  et 

passim. 

Foreigners  in  Mexico,  66,  75,  76, 
102,  122,  299,  300,  319  and  n., 
391,  416,  417 

Fornaro  (Carlo  de),  12,  13 

'  Friends  of  General  Diaz,'  233,  258 
et  seq.,  272 

Froissart,  his  methods,  306,  307 

Fuero  (General),  410 

G 

Gadow  (Dr.),  371  n. 
Galicia,  Natives  of,  95 
Galvan  (General),  67 
Gamboa  (Federico),  440 
Garfield  (James  R.),  quoted,  41 
Garibaldi  (Giuseppe),  241,  268 
Garvin  (J.  L.),  on  The  Times,  264 
Garza  Bolardo  (Leonardo),  24  et  seq. 
Gas-engine,  Attempted  sale  of,  165 


Genest  (Saint),  34  n. 
Gentlewoman,  The,  quoted,  37  n. 
Geographia  de  lasLenguas  de  Mexico, 
440 

German  Club,  Ostracism  at,  108 

—  Consul's  daughters,  243,  407 

—  Minister,  314  n. 

Gilbert  (Sir  William),  Reference  to, 
267  n. 

Gillow  (Dr.  Eulogio),  the  successful 

Archbishop,  333 
Gobernacion,  Minister  of,  6  n.,  251 
Godoy,  his  absurdity,  9,  10 
Goetschel  (Messrs.),  16 
Gongora  (Father),  his  merits,  8,  9 
Gonzalez  (Abraham),  of  Chihuahua, 

299 

—  (Camilo),  of  the  Telegraph,  34 
and  n. 

—  (Fernando),  the  governor,  288, 
289 

—  (President  Manuel),  73,  288, 
289,  381,  382 

—  (Obregon),  the  thief,  202 
Governor,  Somnolence  of  a,  123 
Governors,  how  chosen  by  Diaz, 

115  et  seq. 

Grantham  (Mr.  Justice),  37  n. 

Green  (Michael)  and  the  retribu- 
tion, 183 

Grey  (Sir  Edward,  k.g.),  18 

Guadalajara  [Jal.],  225,  244,  277 

Guanajuato  [Gto.],  the  circus,  131 

 its  thievish  governor,  202 

 the  prisoners,  202 

  263,  293,  349,  351 

Guardia  National,  113 

Guatemala,  place  of  refuge,  202 

—  (see  Estrada  Cabrera) 
Guerra  (J.  M.)»  praised,  164 
Guerrero  (the  State),  261,  271  and 

n.,  348,  353  et  seq.,  359  et  seq. 

—  (General),  349 


452 


INDEX 


Gutierrez  (David),  his  deposition, 
195  et  seq. 

—  (Salvador),  the  prefect,  274, 
275 

—  Najera  (Manuel),  358  and  n. 

H 

Hahn,  late  British  Consul,  144, 
145 

Havana,  36,  144 

Henequen,  how  price  affects 
labourers,  152 

—  Payment  for  cutting,  185, 
186 

Hernandes    (Dr.    Fortunato)  on 

the  Indians,  142 
Hernandez  (Colonel),  director  of 

prison,  28  n. 

—  (Dr.  Francisco),  3 

—  (Gabriel),  324 

—  (Ignacio),  173,  174 

—  (Rafael),  293 

Herrera  (Buenaventura),  the  de- 
nouncer, 174 

—  (Carlos),  the  jefe,  422,  423 

—  (Felipe),  the  agent,  196 
Hidalgo  (the  State),  425 

—  the  patriot,  132,  210,  211,  214, 
215,  218,  227,  259,  263,  346  n., 
348  et  seq. 

Historia  de  los  Indios,  162 
Honduras,  Clothing  of  delegates 
from,  219 

—  British,  its  neighbour,  4  n. 

 its  natives,  19,  163,  164 

Honour,  Legion  of,  108 

—  Aristegui's,  28 

Hospital  at  Cueinavaca,  234  n. 
Hospitality,  Unavoidable  requital 

of,  193,  194 
Huajuapam  [Oax.],  233  first  n. 
Huamantla  [Tlax.],  opp.  285 


Huerta  (Pro v.  President  Victori- 
ano),  218  n.,  285,  287  et  seq.,  313 

et  seq. 
Huichols,  134 
Humboldt  quoted,  273  n. 


I 

Icamole  [Oax.],  60,  410 
Iglesias  (President  de  jure  Jose), 
63,  411 

Ignorance  of  Mexico,  199,  200 
Iguala  [Gro.],  262,  359,  368,  369 
Impartial,  El,  105,  128  n.,  217, 

233,  240,  241,  255,  256,  279, 

282,  283 
In  Exile,  56 

In  Southern  Mexico,  371  n. 
Inde  [Dgo.],  417 

Independence,  Destruction  of  Act 
of,  100 

—  Impending  loss  of,  317  et  seq. 
Indians  (see  also  Slaves) 

—  Social  ambitions  of,  130 
--  the  nobles,  130,  146 

—  their  trousers,  132 

—  Docility  of,  132  et  seq. 

—  Morality  of,  in  Yucatan,  133 

—  investigated  by  Men  end  ez,  146 

—  their  conservatism,  290,  311 

—  and  Madero,  321 

—  Poet  of  the,  353  et  seq. 
Indigo  ponds,  Exploitation  of,  165 
International  Harvester  Co.,  170, 

171 

Irabien  (Manuel  de),  xi,  xii,  182 
Irapuato  [Gto.],  207,  386 
Irrigation,  396 
Ituarte,  425 

Iturbide,  the  Emperor,  214 
Izabal  of  Sonora,  139,  246  and  n. 
Izamal  [Yuc],  49,  160 
Iztaccihuatl,  365 


INDEX 


453 


J 

Jalapa   [Ver.],    57   n.,    98,  99, 
363 

Jalisco,  58,  133,  222 

—  [Chis.],  206 

Jamaica,    Labourers    from,  144, 
145 

Japan,  Consular  courts  in,  102 
Japanese  and  the  Coreans,  159  n. 

—  and  a  treaty,  247 

Jaxon  (Honore  J.),  the  firebrand, 
249  n. 

Jefe  politico,  An  upright,  90 

 A  venal,  93,  150,  160 

 his  amazement,  134 

 A  good,  193,  194 

 and  the  minors,  194,  195 

Jiminez  y  Muro   (Dolores),  the 

assaulted  authoress,  15  n. 
Jockey  Club,  140,  218 
Journalists  in  Mexico,  passim 
Juarez  (President  Benito),  7,  14,  56 

et  seq.,  211,  233  n.,  241,  254, 

258,  294,  331,  405,  409 

—  (Benito),  the  son,  293  n. 
Juchitan  [Oax.],  133,  431,  432 
Justice  in  Nicaragua,  37  n. 

—  Diaz  uncertain  as  to,  56 

—  Porfirian,  Precautions  against, 
101 

 Foreigners  protest  against, 

102 

—  and  Burgos,  151,  152 

—  her  minister,  377 
Juvenal,  A  modern,  37  n. 


K 

Kankanba  [Yuc],   where  Mayas 

were  tamed,  168 
Kansas  City,  Mexico  and  Orient 

Railway,  84  n. 


L 

Lacroix  (Benito),  inspector  of 
monuments,  104 

Laguna  [Camp.],  145 

Land  problem,  249  n.,  270,  287, 
303  n.,  313,  318  n. 

Landa  y  Escandon  (Guillermo  de), 
8  first  n.,  115  n.,  219,  259,  301  n. 

Laredo,  Texas,  224,  420 

Lassalle,  Resemblance  to,  343,  344 

Latin  America :  its  Rise  and  Pro- 
gress, 216  second  n. 

Latouche  (Francis),  329  n. 

Law  Reports  quoted,  40 

Leon  (Jose  Fernandez  de),  pro- 
fessor, 209,  210 

Lerdo  de  Tejada  (Miguel),  57 

 (Sebastian),  56  et  seq.,  241, 

254,  411 

Lima  de  Vulcano,  La,  quoted,  212, 
391 

Limantour     (Jose    Yves),  Mrs. 

Tweedie  and  his  teeth,  8  first  n. 

 in  Paris,  43 

 as  to  his  father,  130 

 the  financier,   137,  138, 

217 

 and  the  revolution,  229, 

230  first  n.,  231,  248  et  seq.,  259 
etseq.,  270,  280,  281,291,301  n. 

—  (Julio),  138 

Limon,  former  secretary  of  Diaz, 
423 

Linares  [N.L.],  305 
Lorenzano  (Bishop),  441 
Lotteries,  177,  282,  298,  321,  378 
et  seq. 

Loubat  (Due  de)  and  Batres,  106 
Louis  XI,  quoted  by  Lerdo,  59 
Low  (Maurice),  245  n. 
Lower  California,  240,  241,  247  n., 

255,  269,  298 

—  class,  The,  77  et  seq. 


454 


INDEX 


Lozada,  Tiger  of  Alica,  67,  68 
Lozano,  the  deputy,  253 
Lujan  (Manuel),  301  n. 
Lumholtz  (Carl),  9,  13,  206 
Luque  (General),  235  and  n.,  242 

M 

Maas  (General),  in  the  suburb,  100 
Macaulay,  quoted,  316 
MacDonald   (F.    A.),   of  British 

dominion,  163,  164 
MacDonall,  the  critic,  343 
Macedo  (Miguel),  217,  218 

—  (Pablo),  217,  218,  299 
Madero  (Ernesto),  the  Minister,  293 

—  (President  Francisco)  and  Mrs. 
Tweedie,  8  and  n. 

 his  propaganda,  23,  220, 

238,  239 

 and  the  States,  103,  135 

 and  the  women,  166 

 Voting  for,  215, 216  first  n. 

 Enthusiasm  for,  218 

 personal  habits,  220 

 his  escape,  224 

 his  plans,  227,  228 

 proclaimed  Provisional 

President,  235 

 and  volunteers,  240 

 and   the  resignation  of 

Diaz,  264  et  seq. 

 and  the  Church,  284 

 and   his   Ministers,  292 

et  seq. 

 and  concessions,  300  n., 

301  n. 

 and  Lord  Cowdray,  301  n. 

 his  prestige,  303 

 and  Reyes,  304 

 and  the  Catholics,  305 

 his  murder,  315 

 and  freedom,  316 


Madero  (President  Francisco) 
summed  up,  321  et  seq. 

—  (Gustavo),  315 

—  (Raoul),  268  n. 
Magdalena  Bay  [B.C.],  247  n. 
Malpaso  [Chi.],  231 
Mancera  (Gabriel),  380,  381 
Manterola,  the  postmaster,  36  first 

n. 

Manzanilla  (Camilo),  notary  pub- 
lic, 184 

Marcus  Aurelius,  quoted,  3 

Marihuana,  15  n. 

Mariscal,  Foreign  Minister,  58,  96 

Marquez  (General  Leonardo),  64, 
337  n. 

Martin  (Percy  F.),  his  ignorance, 

11  n.,  12  n. 
Martinez  (General    Ignacio),  his 

death,  7,  420 

—  (General  Mucio),  226,  242  et 
seq.,  424 

—  the  Under-Secretary  of  War, 
422,  423 

Mata  (Filomeno),  the  old  writer, 

16  and  n. 
Mateos  (Manuel),  the  improvisor, 

354 

Maudslay  (A.  P.),  9,  14,  108,  109 
Maximilian,  14,  214,  319  n.,  349, 
431 

Maya  {see  also  '  Slaves '  and 
1  Indians ') 

—  how  treated  by  Bravo,  4  n.  et 
seq. 

—  language,  162 

—  servility,  182 
Mazatlan  [Sin.],  266 
Melero  y  Pina,  263 

Mejia  (General),  his  granddaughter, 
271 

Mena  (F.  Gonzalez),  Jalapa's  law- 
yer, 98 


INDEX 


455 


Mendicuti  (Isidro),  the  leper,  157, 
158 

Mendoza,  the  priest,  49 

Men^ndez  (Carlos  R.),  his  investi- 
gations, 146 

Meredith's  hope,  37  n. 

Merida,  18  n.,  19  n.,  44  et  passim 

Mescal,  what  it  is,  88  n. 

Mexican  Herald,  The,  its  pro- 
Diaz  protests,  90,  91 

 quoted,  108,  135,  247  n., 

299  n.,  300  n. 

 Letter  to,  193 

 considered,  227,  228,  276 

Mexico,  her  reputation,  222 

 progress,  281,  282 

 debt,  298 

 future,  317  et  seq. 

Mexico,  by  Ward,  319  n. 

Mezquita,  the  rich  man,  49 

Miahuatlan  [Oax.],  409 

Michoacan,  her  senile  governor, 
221 

Milne  (Mr.),  314  n. 

Middle  class,  The,  77  et  seq.,  130 

Mir  (Father)  and  the  candles,  47 

 Bombardment  of,  48 

Miramon,  84 

Mitla  [Oax.],  105,  106,  147 
Mobile,  35 
Moliere,  quoted,  306 
Molina  (Audomaro),  167,   172  et 
seq.,  185  et  seq. 

—  (Dr.  Augusto)  and  the  saints, 
168,  169 

—  (Dr.  Ignacio),  167,  175,  176 

—  (Isabel),  her  statue,  166,  167 

—  (Jose  Trinidad),  169,  178  et  seq. 

—  (Juan),  the  lawyer,  155 

—  (Luis  Demetrio),  the  jefe,  31, 
32,  168,  169 

—  (Olegario),  18  et  seq.,  51,  136, 
166  et  seq. 


Molina  (Ricardo),  his  ambitions,  22 

 his  flight,  23,  53,  54 

 aunt,  30 

 cables,  38 

 gold,  38 

 sarcasm,  40 

Mondragon  (General),  his  activi- 
ties, 248  n. 

Monks,  Spanish,  and  the  natives, 
165 

Monroe  Doctrine,  319 

Monte  Alban  [Oax.],  Buried  antiqui- 
ties on, 109 

Montero,  the  old  man,  32 

Monterrey  [N.L.],  221,  223,  293, 
301,  302 

Montes  (Avelino;,  44,  45,  99,  170, 
171 

Mora  the  Archbishop,  69 
Morelos,  the  State,  201,  293,  305 

—  the  patriot,  348,  349 

Moreno  (Benigno  Palma),  the 
hunter,  148,  149 

—  y  Buenvecino  (Jose  M. ),  347 
Morley  (John),  quoted,  282 
Motolinia  (Friar),  quoted,  162 
Motul  [Yuc],  149,  169,  187 
Moya  (Luis),  239,  261 

Muna  [Yuc],  31,  152 
Mundo,  EL,  Premature  announce- 
ment in,  205 
Murder,  Exact  price  of,  87 

—  in  Sinaloa,  Common  cause  of, 
88  n. 

Murderers,  Orchestra  of,  23 
Museum,  Berlin,  Advantage  of,  107 

N  ~ 

Names,  how  given  to  Indians,  134, 
176  n. 

Napoleon  and  Lord  Cowdray,  286 
Nation,  The,  quoted,  37  n. 


456 


INDEX 


Navarro  (General),  231,  234,  242, 

248  n.,  267  and  n. 
Navy  of  Mexico,  336 
Negrete,  Tiger  of  S.  Julia,  236 
Neri,  La,  261,  271 
New  Trails  in  Mexico,  13 
New  York  Evening  Post,  quoted, 

281 

New  York  Times,  quoted,  11,  42 
New  Zealand,  Analogy  of,  303  n. 
Nicholas  of  Montenegro,  80  n. 
Nicholson  (Mr.),  of  The  Times, 
40 

Noecker,  the  German  girl,  407 
Noh-nayura,  home  of  Tec,  181 
Noriega  (Inigo),  the  briber,  101 
NuevaEra,  300  n.,  301  n. 
Nuevo  Leon,  223,  387 
Nuttall  (Mrs.  Zelia),  105  et  seq. 


0 

Oaxaca,  58,  59,  93,  94,  132,  293  n., 

406  et  passim 
Obregon  (Esquivel),  263 
O'Connor  (T.  P.),  237,  286 
Ojinaga  [Chi.],  242 
Okop,  Lake  of,  5  n. 
Old  Taylor  Co.,  373  n. 
Olea  (Hipolito),  the  barrister,  204 
Opposition,    Amazement  at,  80, 

81 

—  Fate   of  leaders   of,   80  n., 
283 

Opulence  in  Mexico,  129 
Ordonez  (Emilio),  11  n.,  424  n. 
Orizaba  [Ver.],  10,  193,  194,  228, 

296,  302,  421  et  seq. 
Orozco  (Pascual),  230  et  seq.,  240, 

242,  268  n.,  276,  297  n. 

—  y  Berra  (Manuel),  440 
Ortiz,  the  eminent  priest,  49 


P 

Pachuca  [Hgo.],  27  n.,  28  n.,  226, 

266,  274,  372  n. 
Pais,  El,  quoted,  6  n.,  27  n.,  203, 

211,  243  n. 

 its  power,  15,  16 

 its  editor,  56  n. 

 temporarily  suppressed,  191, 

192 

 The  censor  and,  230 

 Attitude  of,  284 

Paladin,  El,  its  suppression,  15, 
16 

Palenque  [Chis.],  104 
Palo  Blanco  [Oax.],  Proclamation 
at,  66 

Palomeque  (Dr.),  20,  45,  183,  184 
Pankhurst  (Eduardo),  423 
Panza  (Sancho),  recalled,  125,  188 
Paper,  its  price,  240  n.,  241  n. 
Parral  [Chili.],  268  n. 
Patria,  La,  69 

Patzcuaro  [Mich.],  Lake  of,  132 
Pauncefote  (Lord)  and  Romero,  60 
Pausanias,  Letter  of,  63 
Paz  (Ireneo),  ex-friend  of  Diaz,  69, 
211 

Pearson  and  Son,  Ltd.,  285,  286 
Pech  (Anastacio),  why  flogged,  184, 
185 

—  (Loreto),  185 

—  (Maria  Jesus),  the  grandmother, 
187,  188 

—  (Pedro),  chained  up,  186 
Pelote,  393,  394 
Peninsular,  El,  172 
Penitenciary  in  Yucatan,  19  n.,  23 

et  seq. 
Peon  (Alvaro),  164 

—  (Augusto)  and  the  balls,  32 
 and  the  human  heart,  189 

et  seq. 


INDEX 


457 


Peon  (Carlos),  184 

—  (Ignacio),  143  et  seq. 

—  (Joaquin),  champion  of  Yucatan, 
11,  12 

—  (Rafael),  his  Indians,  28  n. 
Perez  (Carmen),  the  farmer,  152 
Perez  Ponce  (Tomas),  the  lawyer, 

172  et  seq.,  184  et  seq.,  195 
Peru  and  her  lotteries,  379  n. 
Peto  [Yuc],  6  n. 

Petroleum   World,   The,  and  the 

Pope,  84  n. 
Peza  (Juan  de  Dios),  339,  340 
Philip  II.  of  Spain,  3 
Phillimore  (Mr.  Justice),  36  secondn. 
Phillips  (Sir  Claude),  quoted,  37 
Pineda  (Rosendo),  289,  299 
Pino,  promoted,  235 
Pino  Suarez,  292,  314 
Pinto,  horrible  disease,  271  and  n. 
Pita,  the  jefe,  93,  243  n. 
Pixyah  [Yuc],  Indignant  girl  at,  47 
Plancarte,  Bishop  of  Cuernavaca, 

107 

Plongeon  (Dr.  le),  his  discoveries, 
37,  38 

Police,  Dullness  of  Mexican,  97 

—  Great  improvement  in,  97,  98 
Pollard  (Hugh),  quoted,  287 
Poot  (Justo),  28  n. 

—  (Matilde),   and  her  husbands, 
189,  190 

Popocatepetl,  365 
Post  Office  and  the  public,  200,  201 
Praise,  Reward  for,  21 
Presbyterian,  The,  and  Molina,  169 
Priests  in  Yucatan,  7  et  seq.,  162 

—  and  the  Press,  15 

Prieto  (Guillermo),  the  poet,  348 
et  seq. 

Progreso  [Yuc],  18  n.,  19  n.,  35, 

52  et  passim 
Progress  in  thirty  years,  124  et  seq. 


Protesta  de  Yucatan,  295  n. 
Protestants,  Corean,  159  n. 
Puebla  [Pueb.],  its  jefe,  93,  238 

—  Voting  in,  120,  121 

—  Convent  life  in,  141 

—  226,  238,  266,  272,  297  n. 
Puga  y  Sosa   (Galbino),  notary 

public,  184 
Puig  (Antonio),  his  marriage,  48 
Pulque,  84  n.,  117,  146,  243  n.,  259 
Punch,  quoted,  36  second  n. 

Q 

Queretaro  [Qro.],  70,  238,  293,  356 
Quintana  Roo,  the  territory,  xii, 
4  et  seq.,  26,  149,  345 

 (Andres),  295  n.,  345  et  seq. 

Quixote  (Don),  recalled,  125 

R 

Radovich,  his  Mexican  fate,  80  n. 
Railway  affairs,  138  and  n.,  231, 
260,  321 

—  and  religion,  169 

—  in  warfare,  245 

Ramirez,  his  suicide,  190  et  seq. 
Ramos  (Jose"  Sanchez),  the  hacen- 

dado,  88 
Raumer  (von),  quoted,  46  n. 
Real  del  Monte  [Hgo.],  373  n. 
Red  Cross,  Mexican,  234,  270,  271, 

281 

Redo  (Diego),  115  n.,  222 
Re-election,  66,  74  et  seq.,  215,  218, 

220,  251  etseq.,  290 
Regil  (Luis  de),  21 
Reguera  (Pedro),  a  chemist,  26 
Reuter,  his  late  correspondent,  109 
Re  vista  de  Comisario,  26 
Bevista  de  Merida,  La,  22,  174,  176 
Reyes  (General  Bernardo),  4,  223, 


458 


INDEX 


224,  250,  265,  296  et  seq.,  303  et 

seq.t  316 
Ricoy  (Senorita),  her  lover,  205 
Rio  Blanco  [Ver.],  227,  422 
Rio  Grande  [Chi.,  etc.],  313 
Rio  Papaloapam  [Oax.],  331 
Rios  (Manuel),  the  clerk,  155,  189 

et  seq. 

Riva  Palacio,  cultivated  general, 
346 

Rivera  ( Agustin),  his  criticism,  125, 
126 

—  (Felipe),  the  shopkeeper,  178, 
179,  186 

Roads,  371  n.  et  seq. 

Robelo  (Cecilio  A.),  443 

Robinson -Wright  (Mrs.  Marie),  her 
optimism,  9 

Robles  (Pancha),  the  lady  slave- 
dealer,  87  et  seq.,  333 

—  her  son,  89,  90 

Romero  (Matias),  the  economist, 
58  et  seq. 

—  Rubio  and  the  judges,  101 
Rosado,  the  lawyer,  286 
Root  (Elihu),  223,  296 
Rousseau,  quoted,  191  n. 

Ruiz  (Pablo),  the  major-domo,  30, 
31 

Rurales,  268,  323  n. 
Russian  Characteristics,  204 

S 

Sacnicte,  its  currency,  178,  179 
Saint  Bernard,  quoted,  233  first  n. 

—  Lawrence,  398  et  seq. 

—  Vincent  Ferrer,  377 

Salazar  de  B.  (Petrona),  her  letter, 

176,  177 
Salina  Cruz  [Oax.],  370 
Salm-Salm  (Princess),  62  n. 
Saltillo  [Coah.],  263,  341,  342,  345 


San  Antonio,  Flogging  at,  174 
 Texas,  245,  305 

—  Ignacio  [Camp.],  144 

—  Isidro  [Yuc],  151 

—  Juan  [Yuc],  187 

 de  los  Lagos  [Jal.],  388 

 de  Ulua,  11  second  n.,  28  n., 

29  n.,  80,  285  et  seq. 

—  Luis  Potosl  [S.L.P.],  62,  65,  66, 
109,  222,  223,  323  n. 

—  Patricio  [Camp.],  145 
Sanchez  (Fernando),  his  fate,  45 

—  the  servant,  105 

—  Ancona  (Juan),  300  n. 

—  Santos  (Trinidad),  56  n.,  284 

—  Solis,  codex,  107 

Santa- Anna  (President),  84,  254 
Santo  Tomas,  Teaching  at  College 

of,  126 
Sarabia,  the  failure,  287 
Saville  (Marshall),  his  monumental 

books,  9,  13,  14 
Scherer  (Madame),  her  luggage, 

128  n. 

—  (Messrs.)  and  the  IOU's,  138 
Schroder  (Messrs.  J.  Henry  &  Co.), 

38,  39 

Scutari  prison  and  S.  Juan  de  Ulua, 
80  n. 

Secret-service  men,  43  et  seq.,  415 
Seler  (Prof. ),  the  German,  104e£ seq. 
Sierra  (Justo),  341 
Sinaloa,  84  n.,  88  n.,  222,  425 
Slaves  in  Yucatan,  144  et  seq.,  153, 
154,  161 

—  procured  by  Pancha  Robles,  87 
Smallpox,  its  treatment  in  Mexico 

and  Russia,  203,  204 

Society  of  Workmen,  22 

Soldaderas,  123,  234 

Soldiers,  how  enrolled,  their  ineffi- 
ciency in  Yucatan,  21,  30  et  seq. , 
51 


INDEX 


459 


Soldiers,  their  pay,  261,  263 
Solis  (Andres),  the  inspector,  170 

—  (Judge),  26 
Sonora,  231,  232 
Sosa  (Luisa),  48 

Soso  (Miguel  Gonzalez),  the  farmer, 

160,  161 
Southey  on  Palenque,  104 
Spain,  Theatrical  tribute  to,  96 
Spaniard,  the  grandee,  140 
Spaniards  in  Yucatan,  27,  46,  47 

—  in  Puebla,  266 

—  in  Mexico,  319 
Spectator ;  The,  quoted,  319 
Spies  in  Merida,  44 
Spindola  (Reyes),  240,  241 
Standard  Oil  Co.,  265,  281,  301  n. 
Stilwell  (Arthur  E.),  84  n. 
Stringer  (Mr.),  314  n. 

Stronge  (Mr.  F.  W.),  314  n. 
Suarez  (Rogelio),  the  son-in-law, 

27,  171,  180  et  seq. 
Sufragio,  El,  110 
Surnames  in  Mexico,  176  n. 

T 

Tabasco,  50,  221,  260,  283,  361 
Tacubaya  [D.F.],  150,  337  n. 
Taft  (President)  and  intervention, 

300  n.,  318 
Tamaulipas,  31,  291 
Tamborrel  (Colonel),  the  usurer, 

266,  267 

Tampico  [Tam.],  Nursemaid's  lover 

at,  164  n. 
Tapachula  [Chis.],  202 
Tapia  (General),  273,  296 
Tarahumares,  their  religion,  46 
Tec  (Tomas),  his  flogging,  180, 

181 

Tecoac  [Tlax.],  69 

Tecoh  [Yuc],  its  priest,  46,  48 


Tehuantepec  [Oax.],  285,  286,  427 
et  seq. 

Tekax  [Yuc],  Decapitation  near,  149 
Telegraphing,  Difficulties  of,  14, 
34,  35 

—  Diaz  on,  35  n. 
Telegraphs,  Absence  of,  145 

—  Officials  of,  34 

Teotihuacan,   Pyramids   of,  106, 
222  n. 

Tepechualco  [Ver.],  285,  288 
Tepic,  68,  132 
Terence,  quoted,  148  n. 
Terra  Nova  (Duke  of),  367 
Terrazas     (General     Luis),  the 
millionaire,  136 

—  the  son,  137 

Terry's  Mexico,  quoted,  381 
Tetzitz,  Syringing  at,  193 
Texcoco  [D.F.],  270  n.,  365 
Thucydides,  quoted,  63 
Ticul  [Yuc],  44,  195 
Tiempo,  El,  108,  284 
Tierra  Blanca  [Ver.],  356 
Times,  The,  x,  xiii,  17  n.,  38  et  seq., 
216  first  n.,  236,  237  n. 

—  Omission  from,  39 
Tixcancal  [Yuc],  Procedure  at,  168 
Tixkokob  [Yuc],  48,  174 

Tixtla  [Gro.],  353 
Tizimin  [Yuc],  47  et  seq. 
Tlaxcala,  130,  227,  228 
Tolstoi  and  re-election,  254 
Toluca  [Mex.],  288,  354 
Tonala  [Chis.],  11 
Toro  (General),  64 
Torreon  [Coah.],  xi,  171,  261,  306 
Torres  (General),  139,  245  and  n. 

—  (Juan),  the  Mexican,  183 
Tortolero  (Padre),  his  punishment, 

205 

Tower  (Sir  Reginald,  k.c.m.g.),  17, 
18,  302 


460 


INDEX 


Tres  Marias  [Mor.  and  Tep.],  366 
and  n. 

Truth,  Mexican  Government  and 
the,  5,  41,  313  et  seq. 

—  as    to    Yaquis    in  Yucatan, 
10 

—  and  Mrs.  Tweedie,  13 

—  Unpalatable,  and  The  Times, 
43 

—  Various  sorts  of,  407 
Tuberculosis,    Where    to  catch, 

30 

Turkish  pedlars,  6  n. 

—  showman,  389,  390 

—  women,  235  n, 

Turner,  his  Barbarous  Mexico,  10 
et  seq. 

Tuxtepec  [Oax.],  16,  87  et  seq.,  211, 

264,  329,  334 
Tuyim  (Francisco  and  Gertrudis), 

174,  175 

Tweedie  (Mrs.   Alec),   her  fierce 

sarcasm,  7,  8 
 her  approximation  to  the 

truth,  13 
 and    the    water  -  sprite, 

286  n. 

 discussed,  409  et  seq. 

Tzabcan  [Yuc],  home  of  Tuyims, 
174 

Tzintzuntzan  [Mich.],  125 


U 

Universal,  El,  172 
Unknown  Mexico,  13 
Upper  classes,  The,  77  et  seq. 
Urquidi  (Manuel),  the  engineer, 

228  and  n. 
Uruapam  [Mich.],  Orgy  at,  274, 

275 

Uxmal  [Yuc],  104,  156 


V 

Valladolid  [Yuc],  21,  48,  92,  235  n. 
Valle  Nacional  [Oax.],  147,  194, 

334 

Valles  [S.L.P.],  415 
Vanity  Fair,  quoted,  36  second  n. 
Varela,  the  entertaining  priest,  49 
Vazquez  Gomez  (Emilio),  291,  292 
 (Dr.  Francisco),  231,  232, 

250,  251,  263,  277,  291,  292,  318 
Vega  (Dr.),  his  patience,  30 
Velasquez,  his  unheard  confession, 

205 

Vera  Estanol  (Jorge),  250,  251,  269, 
293 

Veracruz  [Ver.],  65  et  passim 
Verdad,  La,  156 

Verde  (Miguel)  (see  Michael  Green) 
Vidaurri  execution,  57 
Viljoen,  the  Boer,  242,  267,  272, 
276 

Villa  (Pancho),  his  career,  268 
and  n. 

Villamil  (Joaquin  Patron),  the  good 
judge,  151 

—  of  the  police,  45 
Villavicencio,  the  torturer,  204, 205, 

aud  n. 

Virgen  de  Guadalupe,  287  n. 

—  de  los  Remedios,  287  n. 
Viva  Mexico,  13,  128  n. 
Voting,  118,  120  et  seq.,  216,  270, 

and  n. 

W 

Wall  Street,  301  n.,  320,  321 
Ward  (H.  G.),  319  n. 
Ward  Line,  Methods  of,  35,  36 
White  Cross,  271,  281 
Whitewashing  of  Mexico,  American, 

8  n.,  320 
Willert  (Arthur),  33  et  seq.,  40,  41 


INDEX 


461 


Wilson  (Henry  Lane),  American 
Ambassador,  246,  314  n.,  319  et 
seg. 

Winter  (Nevin  0.),  his  ridiculous 

book,  216  second  n. 
Women,  Segregation  of  high-class, 

140,  141 
Wood  (General),  of  U.S.A.,  297 


X 

Ximenes,  263 

Xumpich,  hacienda,  173  et  seq., 

184  et  seg. 
Xochicalco  [Mor.],  372 


Y 

Yaquis,  10  and  n.,  12  and  n.,  125, 

139,  156,  157 
Yaxche  [Yuc],  150,  189  et  seq. 
Year  Book,  Mexican,  considered, 

63,  64 

Yokat  [Yuc],  195  et  seq. 


Yucatan,  Adventures  of  nursemaid 
in,  xi,  xii 

—  the  priests,  7  et  seq. 

—  Flying  in,  18  n.,  19  n. 

—  Slaves  of,  142  et  seq. 

—  Morality  of,  154 

—  Inaccuracies  as  to,  156 

—  and  El  Diet  amen,  190 

—  her  historic  independence,  295  n. 
Yucatan  Nuevo,  a  forgotten  journal, 

25,  190 

Z 

Zacapoaztla  Indians,  243 
Zacatecas,  209,  211,  212,  239,  261, 

319  n.,  420 
Zambos,  The  repulsive,  131 
Zapata,  the  ex-groom,  305  and)  n. , 

314 

Zaragoza  (General),  273 
Zayas  Enriquez  (Rafael),  295  n., 
424 

Zepeda  (Enrique),  324 
Zocalo,  279 

Zimiga  y  Miranda,  76  and  n. 


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